Help me find the exact "eat a bullfrog" quote?

April 27, 2008 12:28 PM

What is the original origin and exact wording of the quote that goes to the effect: "If you have to eat a bullfrog, don't look at it for too long. If you have to eat two bullfrogs, eat the biggest/ugliest one first"?

I've heard variants on this quote attributed to Mark Twain, but the original source escapes me. Googling mostly turns up business management pages. I would like the original quote for a door plaque of mine. Could anyone point me in the right direction?

posted by internet!Hannah to writing & language (3 answers total)

It's probably an old folk saying with a lot of variants, no telling where it came from or who said it first. One variation is "If you have to eat a bullfrog, do it first thing in the morning. That way, the rest of the day is downhill,” cited by this writer as being a quote from her grandmother. I'm not finding anything like this in Twain although as you say, it's attributed to him. However, like Yogi Berra, Twain really didn't say everything he said.
posted by beagle at 12:55 PM on April 27, 2008

"Eat a live frog every morning, and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day" is the way I always heard that phrased.
posted by kindall at 6:39 PM on April 27, 2008

Eh, I just went with my wording and attached an "-Anon." after it. Thanks for the help everyone!
posted by internet!Hannah at 1:33 PM on May 5, 2008