"All AUE, I am trying (with, so far, a complete lack of success) to find a reference to the source ... this quotation several years ago and cannot remember if I ever tried to invoke the aid of the AUE membership.)"
Charles, we've discussed four or five very similar quotes in the last month or two, all attributed to different historical eras and figures. Some are known to be bogus and we assume the others are also, by association. Here's a pretty authoritative debunking, from a librarian group:
http://listserv.dom.edu/cgi-bin/wa.exe?A2=ind0208&L=STUMPERS-L&P=R6193
As you'll see, evidence suggests that the notion was invented for a 1933 novel called The Werewolf of Paris .
You can find the threads where we discussed this from this data:
Subject: Re: Don't look here for open discussion
Date: Sun, 31 Aug 2003 22:54:48 +0200
Message-ID:
Subject: Re: Apocryphal texts about disobedient children irevisited Date: Fri, 19 Sep 2003 22:45:09 +0200
Message-ID:
Best Donna Richoux