Mark Twain – “Anyone who can only think of one way to spell a word obviously lacks imagination.”
Thomas Jefferson – “I have nothing but contempt for anyone who can spell a word only one way.”
Andrew Jackson – “It is a damn poor mind that can think of only one way to spell a word.”
Variations:
“You should never trust a man who has only one way to spell a word.”
“Pity the man who can spell a word only one way.”
“I never met a man so narrow that he can spell a word in only one way.”
Mark Twain, from his autobiography:
As I have said before, I never had any large respect for good spelling. That is my feeling yet. Before the spelling book came with its arbitrary forms, men unconsciously revealed shades of their characters, and also added enlightening shades of expression to what they wrote by their spelling, and so it is possible that the spelling book has been a doubtful benevolence to us.