Tracing Quotations
Ralph Waldo Emerson? Sam Elliott? Ethan Coen? Joel Coen? Bertrand W. Sinclair? Carl O. Sauer? Roger Penske? Jim Croce? Preacher Roe? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: There is a family of ursine sayings about the topsy-turvy vicissitudes of life: 1) Sometimes you eat the bear, and sometimes the bear eats you. 2) Sometimes you hunt the …
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Tallulah Bankhead? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: The movie star Tallulah Bankhead apparently grew tired of seeing misquotations, and she proclaimed that any quotation ascribed to her was inaccurate: …except if it is funny, in which case I definitely said it. I thought you might enjoy this topic. What do you think? Quote Investigator: In July …
Continue reading “Whatever You Have Read That I Said Is Almost Certainly Untrue, Except . . .”
P. G. Wodehouse? John Gardner? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: The popular and prolific humorist P. G. Wodehouse created indelible characters such as Bertie Wooster and Reginald Jeeves. Wodehouse apparently claimed that he was a remarkably precocious author: I know I was writing stories when I was five. I haven’t been able to find a solid …
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Mark Twain? Ossip Gabrilowitsch? Clara Clemens? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: I’m conducting a research check on a television script containing a definition for the term “conspiracy” credited to Mark Twain. The definition notes that the conspiring participants “dare not admit in public” the secret agreement. Are you familiar with this quotation? Is the attribution to …
Continue reading “Conspiracy: The Pursuance of Policies Which They Dare Not Admit in Public”
Plato? Michel de Montaigne? Hannah More? C. V. Hibbard? Warren J. Clear? Ruth Straub? William Thomas Cummings? Ernie Pyle? Anonymous Chaplain? Anonymous Soldier? Question for Quote Investigator: When exposed to extreme peril many people reflect on the spiritual or supernatural dimension of existence. The following sayings have been particularly popular during times of war. Here …