Tracing Quotations
Mark Twain? Oscar Wilde? Josh Billings? Spanish Proverb? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Everyone is guilty of some procrastination. Even the industrious humorist Mark Twain was credited with a quotation sympathetic to the indolent: Never put off till tomorrow, what you can do the day after tomorrow. Puzzlingly, this same quip has been ascribed to the …
Continue reading “Never Put Off Till Tomorrow What You Can Do The Day After Tomorrow Just As Well”
King George II? Duke of Newcastle? Joe Miller? James Wolfe? Dear Quote Investigator: When George II of Great Britain was planning to send General James Wolfe on a military expedition to Canada his close advisor told him that Wolfe was a poor selection for such an important assignment because he was a madman. The King …
Continue reading “I Hope He Will Bite My Other Generals and Make Them Mad, Too”
Margot Asquith? Margot Grahame? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: According to a Hollywood legend there was a pointed verbal encounter between the movie siren Jean Harlow and the sharp-tongued English aristocrat Margot Asquith. When Harlow attended a party given by Asquith, the movie star presumptuously referred to the hostess by her first name, and she repeatedly …
Ralph Waldo Emerson? Lao Tzu? Frank Outlaw? Gautama Buddha? Bishop Beckwaith? Father of Margaret Thatcher? Dear Quote Investigator: What do the following people have in common: Transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson, Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu, supermarket magnate Frank Outlaw, spiritual teacher Gautama Buddha, and the father of Margaret Thatcher? Each one of these individuals has been …
Continue reading “Watch Your Thoughts, They Become Words; Watch Your Words, They Become Actions”
Herbert Beerbohm Tree? Frederick Henry Townsend? George du Maurier? Yogi Berra? Mutt and Jeff? An inebriate? A woman carrying packages? Dear Quote Investigator: I have read several instances of a popular comical anecdote. Two different versions featured baseball Hall-of-Famer Yogi Berra. One night he was presented with a grandfather clock at a banquet dinner. Yogi …
Continue reading “Why Don’t You Carry a Wrist Watch Like Everyone Else?”
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: On a website dedicated to travel I saw a quotation credited to the famous Soviet dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: Own only what you can carry with you; know language, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag. Is this attribution accurate? A travel tip from Solzhenitsyn seems …
Albert Einstein? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: Many websites credit Albert Einstein with this statement: Imagination is more important than knowledge. I am skeptical. Are these the words of Einstein? Quote Investigator: This remark apparently was made by Einstein during an interview that was published in “The Saturday Evening Post” in 1929. Here is an excerpt …
Continue reading “Imagination Is More Important Than Knowledge”