Meaning
Being deceived once is the deceiver's fault, but letting the same deception succeed a second time is your own, because you failed to learn from experience. Frequently clipped to just 'fool me once' with the rest understood, and used of scams, broken promises, and repeat mistakes. Conversational and pointed; often clipped to 'fool me once' with the rest left unsaid. Regional use: General English.
Origin
The idea first surfaces in English in The Court and Character of King James (1651), attributed to the courtier Anthony Weldon: 'The Italians having a Proverb, He that deceives me once, it's his fault; but if twice, it's my fault.' Weldon presents it as an Italian saying, but no confirming Italian source is known, so the Italian label should be treated as unverified. A cruder version appeared in an 1869 advertisement in the Daily Ohio Statesman, put in the mouth of an old French friend: if a man fools me once he is a fool, but if he fools me twice I am. The polished modern form pairing 'shame on you' with 'shame on me' became standard in the twentieth century and is often quoted in full. The saying gained a second life as a punchline after President George W. Bush garbled it at a school event in Nashville, Tennessee on 17 September 2002, ending with 'Fool me - you can't get fooled again' instead of the expected second half, a stumble so famous that it is itself now quoted.
Research Sources
References used to check this entry’s meaning, history, or documented forms.
Variants
- Fool me once
- Fool me once, shame on thee; fool me twice, shame on me
- Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me
- Fool me twice, shame on me
Usage Examples
- Fool me once, shame on you, the investor told the founder who had missed a third deadline in a row.
- When the supplier shipped broken parts a second time, she cancelled the contract, saying she refused to be fooled twice.
- He almost clicked the fake invoice link again, then remembered the old line about fool me once and reported it instead.