Not an exact quote, I'm going from memory. I believe it was many years ago.

It was actually Dan Lyons, as quoted by Gruber:

https://daringfireball.net/2008/02/devils_advocate

Thanks, attribution fixed. Now that we've got that sorted, what do you think of the analogy with respect to this deal? Does it—cough—fit?

Oops, turns out Lyons was just quoting Steve Ballmer:

http://web.archive.org/web/20080206081701/https://fakesteve....

It's aphorisms all the way down!

The usual algorithm is to follow the attributions until you reach Samuel Clemons, Benjamin Franklin, Confucius, or Laozi. They are said to have said everything.

> They are said to have said everything.

Which one of them said that?

Raymond Smullyan. He established how they could say things about things they said.

Man, that whole article is worth a read ten years on, in light of the topic at hand. He quotes Ballmer, then shows how Ballmer considering turning around and doing just that for lack of better ideas, all the while (Lyons posits) knowing it won't work.

“Two cripples do not an athlete make”

— folklore