I checked a little deeper and found that in Google Books this did not show
up until 1986 when it appeared in a book by self-help guru Tony Robbins.
After that, every repeat is after 1992, the Internet Age when quote
attributions pretty much turned to mush. I agree with Gretchen that Robbins
likely took this idea from Tom Sawyer and rewrote it completely. Further
evidence is that it's missing from twainquotes.com, which seems to have a
100% track record for separating the wheat from the chaff.

On Thu, Feb 23, 2012 at 8:38 AM, Gretchen Martin <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> That resembles Twain's distinction between work and play in Tom Sawyer,
> Ch.=
>  2: "If he [Tom] had been a great and wise philosopher, like the writer of
> =
> this book, he would now have comprehended that Work consists of whatever a
> =
> body is obliged to do, and that Play consists of whatever a body is not
> obl=
> iged to do" (33). =20
>


Terry Ballard
Assistant Director of Technical Services for Library Systems
The New York Law School
185 West Broadway, New York, NY, 10013
212-431-2106
http://www.terryballard.org
Author of the forthcoming book "Google this"
http://googlethisforlibraries.com

"My memory has a mind of its own."