Following up on my comment re plagiarism and Turn It In, news broke today of a lawsuit regarding Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven.” Turns out, this debate about whether the $562 million rock epic is a rip off of an earlier riff by Spirit has been going on for decades. (Personally, I find it hard to believe that S2H has generated anything like that amount of money and wonder how the figure was arrived at.)

Anyway and more to the point, the following cite appeared in my Facebook feed today:

“The two worst things as can happen to a child is never to have his own way – or always to have it.” ― Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

This reminded me of:

“In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what one wants, and the other is getting it.” Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere’s Fan

And:

“Sir: there are two tragedies in life. One is to lose your heart’s desire. The other is to gain it.” George Bernard Shaw, Man and Superman

Wilde’s quotation was first, but who expressed the similar idea best? I would say Shaw because I’m partial to the phrase “heart’s desire,” but none of the three is precisely equivalent. As some Chinese philosopher said, “Let 100 flowers bloom.”