Confucius Says Confusion Is Proverbial

Controversy over the origin and validity of the aphorism “One picture is worth a thousand words” will not rest.

Perhaps because it seems so ordinary, I tend to believe that the phrase was invented, at least in its modern form, by Fred R. Barnard, in Printer’s Ink on Dec. 8, 1921. On that date he expressed it as “One look is worth a thousand words,” but on March 10, 1922, he altered it to “One picture is worth a thousand words” and called it a Chinese proverb, so that people would take it seriously.

Attorney Louis A. Tepper of Fallbrook notes a curious coincidence. On Dec. 8, 1921--the same day that Barnard’s first version appeared--a Judge Woodward, writing for a unanimous New York Supreme Court in Burdick vs. Fuller--wrote “The Chinese have a proverb that ‘the palest ink is better than the most retentive memory. . .’ ”

The meaning is not identical, but that might have been the seed.

And Tepper further notes that in 1848 a Georgia court (in Miller vs. Cotten) wrote that, “And I would sooner trust the smallest slip of paper for truth, than the strongest and most retentive memory ever bestowed on mortal man.”

That appears to mean only that written evidence is more trustworthy than remembered evidence.

Howard Decker, a photographer, writes that the phrase is indeed based on an old Chinese proverb--”One see is worth a thousand hears.” Similarly, he says, a Japanese proverb says “One look is better than 100 hears.”

Wil Baden of Costa Mesa says that, on his study of the Chinese language, the phrase is not Chinese; but he did find another form of the folk saying, “Hundred hear not as good as one see.”

Mel McKee of Van Nuys, who teaches both college and junior high school, says he always quotes “that stupidity” in his classes. “First,” he argues, “if it were a saying of Confucius, then you would have to say he didn’t know his own language, which uses pictograms. For instance, ‘man’ is a stylized picture of a human being. Based on his using Chinese, his supposed saying would realistically translate, ‘A picture is worth a thousand pictures.’ ”

Leo E. Persselin, who teaches engineers, computer specialists and other such technical personnel in after-hours classes sponsored by Hughes Aircraft, says that, inspired by a previous column of mine, he invented a class motto: “One word is worth a thousand pictures.”

He says he expects his students to challenge the motto any day. “Eternal vigilance, a good defense plan, and lots of ammunition being the price of credibility, I therefore thank you for the artillery in your Dec. 30 column . . . ‘what pictures could portray the Gettysburg Address, the Preamble to the Constitution, the Ten Commandments. . . .’ ”

Albert R. Hibbs, a senior scientist with the Caltech Jet Propulsion Lab, recalls that more than a decade ago two Viking spacecraft landed on Mars with two cameras each, which sent back many detailed pictures for many years.

“And each had three biological devices designed to search in separate ways for any sign of Martian life. A mechanical arm, operated by radio control, reached out from the Viking to scoop up some Martian dirt. Samples were dumped into the hoppers of each device. We had to wait several days for the results. In the interval Caltech’s Norm Horowitz, lead scientist for one of the biology teams, described his hoped-for results this way. ‘For this experiment, one word is worth a thousand pictures.’ Unfortunately, the word was ‘No.’ ”

Meanwhile, Persselin says, “I would like to pass on to my students a quotation you have cited two or three times over the years, something like: ‘Getting started writing is easy. All you do is put a blank sheet of paper in your typewriter and sit there until drops of blood come out of your forehead.’ I believe you attributed it to Gene Fowler.”

According to “The Writer’s Quotation Book” (Penguin), it was indeed Fowler (though I have heard it attributed to Red Smith, the New York sportswriter), and what he said was: “Writing is easy; all you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until the drops of blood form on your forehead.”

Jonathan Swift put it this way: “Blot out, correct, insert, refine/Enlarge, diminish, interline/Be mindful, when invention fails/To scratch your head, and bite your nails.”

That’s all there is to it.