Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach? Lewis Carroll? Charles L. Dodgson? Joseph Addison? Richard Steele? Diedrich Knickerbocker? Washington Irving? Albany de Grenier Fonblanque? Paulo Coelho? Anonymous?

Dear Quote Investigator: An obtuse, unreliable, or incompetent person occasionally performs properly. Here are three versions of a proverb reflecting this observation:

Even a stopped clock is right twice a day. A broken watch is certain to be right twice a day. A clock that stands still is sure to point right once in twelve hours.

This saying has been attributed to the prominent Austrian writer Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach and to the famous children’s author Lewis Carroll, a.k.a., Charles L. Dodgson the author of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”. What do you think?

Quote Investigator: The earliest match located by QI appeared in “The Spectator” magazine in 1711. Even in the 1700s dress fashions were ever changing. If one maintained a single clothing style it would become passé, but eventually it would return to “the mode”, i.e., become fashionable again. “The Spectator” employed the clock-based simile when discussing this topic. Emphasis in excerpts added by QI:

Did they keep to one constant dress, they would sometimes be in the fashion, which they never are as matters are managed at present. If instead of running after the mode, they would continue fixed in one certain habit, the mode would some time or other overtake them, as a clock that stands still is sure to point right once in twelve hours: in this case therefore I would advise them, as a Gentleman did his friend who was hunting about the whole town after a rambling fellow, If you follow him you will never find him, but if you plant your self at the corner of any one street, I’ll engage it will not be long before you see him.

Joseph Addison and Richard Steele founded and operated “The Spectator”. Both were significant literary and political figures. Scholarly reprints in later years identified Joseph Addison as the author of the excerpt above.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

In 1809 Diedrich Knickerbocker published “A History of New York: From the Beginning of the World to the End of the Dutch Dynasty”. The two volume history was comical and satirical, and the actual author was Washington Irving who later achieved fame with “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle”. The proverb appeared in the second volume:

The clock that stands still, and points resolutely in one direction, is certain of being right twice in the four and twenty hours—while others may keep going continually, and continually be going wrong.

During his teen years Charles L. Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) constructed a set of magazine-like manuscripts for his family members. One series called “The Rectory Umbrella” (circa 1850-53) included a counterintuitive comparison of the accuracy of a stopped clock versus a slow clock. This discussion was reprinted decades later in 1898 in “The Strand Magazine” of London:

“Which is the best: a clock that is right only once a year, or a clock that is right twice every day? ‘The latter,’ you reply, ‘unquestionably.’ Very good, reader, now attend. “I have two clocks: one doesn’t go at all, and the other loses a minute a day; which would you prefer? ‘The losing one,’ you answer, ‘without a doubt.’ Now observe: the one which loses a minute a day has to lose twelve hours, or seven hundred and twenty minutes, before it is right again: consequently, it is only right once in two years, whereas the other is evidently right as often as the time it points to comes round, which happens twice a day.

In 1877 “Lippincott’s Magazine of Popular Literature and Science” published an article titled “A Queen of Burlesque” by an unnamed author. The proverb was used during a discussion of morality:

I am afraid that my too intimate acquaintance with all sorts of people has blunted my moral sense, so that I am incapable of distinguishing as I should do the good people from the bad; or may it be that no one is wholly good or wholly bad?—that everybody is like the clock which never goes, yet is certain to be right twice a day?

In 1880 a novel called “Pious Frauds” by Albany de Grenier Fonblanque included a concise instance:

Even a stopped clock is right, we know, twice in the twenty-four hours.

Sometimes the saying referred to a watch instead of a clock. In 1915 “The National Druggist” presented an elaborate simile with clerks, a slow watch, and a stopped watch:

These mistake-making clerks are like a watch. The watch that does not run at all is right twice a day, but the watch that is slow is never right, and the clerk that does nothing at least will not make any fatal errors, while the clerk who usually does things wrong might as well be wrong all the time as far as any faith in him is concerned.

In 1955 an instance appeared in “Speaker’s Encyclopedia of Stories, Quotations, and Anecdotes” by Jacob M. Braude:

No man’s advice is entirely worthless. Even a watch that won’t run is right twice a day.

In 1967 a newspaper in Roselle, Illinois printed an instance, and in 1969 a reference work by Herbert V. Prochnow printed that same instance. Both credited an Austrian writer:

Even a stopped clock is right twice every day. After some years, it can boast of a long series of successes. Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach

The internationally popular Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho who writes in Portuguese included an instance in the 1990 novel “Brida”:

“Nothing in the world is ever completely wrong, my dear,” said her father, looking at the clock. “Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.”

In 2012 the quotation compiler Robert Byrne presented an absurdist variant ascribed to a humorist/actor in “The 2,548 Wittiest Things Anybody Ever Said”:

A stopped clock is right twice a day, but a sundial can be used to stab someone, even at night.

—John Hodgman

In conclusion, the earliest occurrence of this saying known to QI appeared in “The Spectator” and was written by Joseph Addison. “The Spectator” was influential and was reprinted several times, thus Addison helped to popularize the expression. Yet, it is possible that the saying was in circulation before Addison employed it. Other well-known writers have used the expression including Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach, Charles L. Dodgson, Washington Irving, and Paulo Coelho. But none of them coined the proverb.

Image Notes: Multiple clock face images by geralt at Pixabay.

(Great thanks to barrieblonde whose inquiry led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration. Special thanks to Peter Morris who told QI that Lewis Carrol had written a pertinent piece. Many thanks to Jesse Sheidlower who told QI that modern scholarly editions of “The Spectator” indicate that Joseph Addison authored the excerpt containing the proverb.)

Update History: On September 2, 2016 the 1886 citation was added and the occurrence in “The Spectator” was credited to Joseph Addison.