I Must Be Really Clever

The quote has been attributed to both Abraham Lincoln and Mark Twain. However, Garson O'Toole, the pen name of a man who has tracked down the true origins of hundreds of quotes on his website Quote Investigator, has researched the quote and determined that “the origin of the quote "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt," has been wrongly attributed to both to Abraham Lincoln and Mark Twain. – from an interview on NPR All Things Considered

“The earliest evidence that I was able to find was a 1907 book by Maurice Switzer. And it seems to contain a lot of original material, and it includes the statement "It is better to remain silent at the risk of being thought a fool, than to talk and remove all doubt of it." So, it's slightly different phrasing, but I believe that is what evolved to generate the modern common version.”

From Dostoevsky and Maurice Switzer, I came to this self-realization…

I try not to talk out of school,

But I have broken the quotation’s rule.

I think that I'm clever,

But honestly never

Because I know when I'm acting the fool!

And, after giving myself a stern talking to, I stop doing it...until the next time I do it...it's a vicious circle.