Founding Father channels Deepak Chopra, Tony Robbins

I’ve just discovered that on a number of quasi-motivational websites, the following quote is attributed to John Hancock:

“A chip on the shoulder is too heavy a piece of baggage to carry through life.”

Sometimes it appears in an extended version:

“The greatest ability in business is to get along with others and influence their actions. A chip on the shoulder is too heavy a piece of baggage to carry through life.”

A gentleman who expired in 1793 alluding to “emotional baggage”? Dale Carnegie-isms? I call nonsense. The concept of getting along “in business” — and referring to it as such — didn’t appear until well into the 19th century. Never mind what would have been, if Hancock did say these things, a remarkably anachronistic style of speaking. (As in…I’m reminded of Buck Rogers.) How do such bizarre fantasies propagate?

On the CBC

This short essay led to this. Both inspired a friend to send me this.