Ask not what you can do for your country but what can your country do for you?

Hm. If you are seriously enquiring about the quotation as you wrote it, my guess would be that any number of would-be wags have mouthed that reversal of the original. . .

But if you were looking for the "not what your country can do for you" one, it seems to have come up a bunch of times on this forum. . .here's an example:
Ask not what your country. . .

Sorry, I know it is rude to answer a question that wasn't asked.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by kmccary:
Hm. If you are seriously enquiring about the quotation as you wrote it, my guess would be that any number of would-be wags have mouthed that reversal of the original. . .

Ask not what your country. . .


I am seriously inquiring. I ran a goo goo search on this yesterday and came up empty. Reference pleez!

Well, I'm coming up as blank as you. I think you probably aren't going to be able to pin that one down--the temptation to turn the phrases around like that must have been obvious, and irresistible, to any number of folks over the years. Who did it first is probably anybody's guess.