52% sureThe sources checked so far agree on this one. The book or the speech it first came from hasn't turned up yet.
What turned up
Earliest print form ('better sure than sorry') traced to Samuel Lover's novel Rory O'More (1837); the exact wording 'better safe than sorry' is documented as only becoming a fixed cliché in the mid-20th century.
Work
Samuel Lover, Rory O'More
Occasion
1837
Sources checked
phrases.org.ukChecked using claude-sonnet-5, 21 August 20261837 Lover novel citation; notes exact phrase became a cliché mid-1900s
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