As honest as the day is long - older than that

Posted by Kathleen December 23, 2002In reply to As honest as the day is long - older than that posted by TheFallen on December 14, 2002

origin?

HONEST AS THE DAY IS LONG - "A consistently reliable person. The implication seems to be that he or she is honest all the time. 24 hours a day. (A similar thought is in the story of a boy who told his grandmother he 'didn't have time' to do something: she replied, 'You had all the time there was.') The phrase seems to be of fairly recent origin: it was used in print by Richard Shattuck in 'The Snark was a Boofum' ." From the The Dictionary of Cliches by James Rogers (Wings Books, Originally New York: Facts on File Publications, 1985)

James Rogers needed to do more research. The following paste courtesy of the continually useful www.bartleby.com:-

The Columbia World of Quotations. 1996.

NUMBER: 59952
QUOTATION: Such is the labor which the American Congress exists to protect,-honest, manly toil,-honest as the day is long,-that makes his bread taste sweet, and keeps society sweet,-which all men respect and have consecrated; one of the sacred band, doing the needful but irksome drudgery.

ATTRIBUTION: Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), U.S. philosopher, author, naturalist. "Life Without Principle" , in The Writings of Henry David Thoreau, vol. 4, p. 458, Houghton Mifflin .

Thanks. Sorry so late in reply but I was busy with needful but irksome drudgery. I should have known it would come back to Ol' Henry. Saying he is down to earth is an understatement.

Plodding along, Kathleen