Here were three: 1998 February 18, Plainview Daily Herald, Article: Thinking outloud: OK, so what’s the speed of dark?, Page number not specified, Plainview, Texas. In February 1998 a newspaper in Plainview, Texas printed a collection of quips acquired via the internet. >I drive way too fast to worry about cholesterol >I almost had a psychic girlfriend but she left me before we met >Early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese Priester at, Subject: funnies (fwd), … Continue reading Cautionary note: many one-liners are incorrectly ascribed to Wright: 1997 November 14, Usenet discussion message, Newsgroup: -robbins, Sender: Tom Robbins Discussion Group at From: Ruth N. In November 1997 the twisted proverb version was credited to the popular cerebral comedian Stephen Wright in a message posted to the newsgroup -robbins. THOUGHT for the weekend, culled by Greg Cocks, of Brooklyn, from the Internet: The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese. (Verified on paper) 1997 September 13, Sydney Morning Herald, Section: News and Features “COLUMN 8”, Quote, Sydney, Australia. Shapiro,, Yale University Press, New Haven. The important reference work “The Dictionary of Modern Proverbs” from Yale University Press included an entry for the phrase “The second mouse gets the cheese.” A September 1997 citation in the Sydney Morning Herald newspaper was presented: 2012, The Dictionary of Modern Proverbs, Compiled by Charles Clay Doyle, Wolfgang Mieder, and Fred R. This saying was also explored by top researcher Barry Popik who provided several valuable citations here. Here are additional selected citations in chronological order. The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese! The saying was freestanding and no attribution was given: 1995 February 2, Usenet discussion message, Newsgroup:, From: David Jakovac at .ca, Subject: Fright of an arcader’s lifetime!, (Google Groups Search … Continue reading In February 1995 the twisted proverb or anti-proverb version appeared in the Usenet newsgroup in a message posted by “David Jakovac”. The second mouse attempting to retrieve the cheese after the trap has been triggered would probably be successful. In the common mousetrap design shown above the first mouse attempting to take the cheese out of the trap would probably be injured or killed. *- Blessed is the Second mouse for he shall inherit the Cheese.
(Google Groups Search Accessed January 24, 2013) link The handle “Ernst Berg” was listed as the sender of the message: 1994 December 14, Usenet discussion message, Newsgroup: .guy, From: Ernst Berg at, Subject: Thinking Out Loud. The phrasing employed alluded to ethical precepts. The saying was freestanding without attribution, and it was surrounded by ornamental text. Quote Investigator: The earliest dated instance of this type of joke located by QI appeared in December 1994 in a message posted to the Usenet distributed discussion system in a newsgroup called .guy. The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
Sometimes this phrase appears as part of a longer saying: Dear Quote Investigator: I am trying to discover where the following maxim comes from:
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