Things that are difficult to google

“What do they know of X who only X know?”

Do any of you people know what the “original” X was? This was one of those nagging questions that remained unresolved in the momentous meeting of bloggers that took place ten days back. Amit Varma mentioned the quote substituting “cricket” for X and he and Yazad were rather surprised to learn that the original value of X was not cricket. I don’t know what X was originally either, but I’ve heard it in enough contexts to know that cricket isn’t it. The problem is, the statement is true for all values of X. After all, to understand any subject you need the ability to place the subject in context, i.e. you need to go out of the box to understand the box.

As a result of its universal applicability, the statement has been liberally used for different values of X, making it ungoogleable. (For example you can find What do they know of England who only England know?) Can anyone help me find the original X? Please give citations.

Update: It looks like the original quote is “What do they know of England, who only England know?” and the author is Kipling.

4 thoughts on “Things that are difficult to google”

  1. I am surprised to know its not cricket. I thought it was CLR James in ‘Beyond a Boundary’. I am only surprise because the quote has that joyful West Indian accent to it. Try saying it with a WI accent. Hope your quest ends in success. Not a bad quote in itself.

  2. This in some ways reminds of Godel’s incompleteness theorem. All logical system of any complexity are, by definition, incomplete; each of them contains, at any given time, more true statements than it can possibly prove according to its own defining set of rules.

    Sorry no help with the original X here though.

  3. CLR James (who was a classical scholar as well as a great lover of cricket) adapted Kipling’s words. The close association of ‘England’ and ‘cricket’ was no accident. Although a West Indian socialist and anti-imperialist he had great regard for many of the institutions of the British Empire, especially the game of cricket and its embodiment of fair play.

  4. The problem is that it is misquoted. According to the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, it’s “What should they know of England who only England know?” Kipling, “The English flag”, Barrack-room Ballads, 1892.

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