Milton Friedman? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Economic policies are typically promulgated and enacted with high purposes and goals, yet sometimes the results are inadvertently deleterious. A prominent economist once said: One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results. These words have been credited to …
Author Archives: quoteresearch
Quote Origin: Social Media Gives the Right To Speak To Legions of Imbeciles Who Previously Only Spoke in Bars After Drinking
Umberto Eco? Dery Dyer? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A prominent intellectual once denounced social media because it amplified the voices of imbeciles who in the past only propounded their opinions at local bars after drinking. This notion has been attributed to the Italian semiotician and novelist Umberto Eco who wrote “Il Nome Della Rosa” …
Quote Origin: There Are Years That Ask Questions and Years That Answer
Zora Neale Hurston? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A new year brings uncertainties and choices. The uncertainties will be resolved in a future year. A prominent literary figure once wrote: There are years that ask questions and years that answer. This statement has been attributed to U.S. writer Zora Neale Hurston. Would you please help …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: There Are Years That Ask Questions and Years That Answer”
Quote Origin: The Distinction Between Past, Present, and Future Is Only a Stubbornly Persistent Illusion
Albert Einstein? Freeman Dyson? H. Dieter Zeh? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The universe can be modeled as a vast four-dimensional spacetime manifold. From this viewpoint, time does not change; instead, the universe is static and timeless. Here are four versions of a statement attributed to the famous physicist Albert Einstein: (1) The separation between …
Quote Origin: In a Football Match, Everything Is Complicated by the Presence of the Opposite Team
Jean-Paul Sartre? Alan Sheridan-Smith? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The presence of an adversary makes planning more complex because the achievement of goals requires the anticipation of counter-measures. A famous philosopher once said something like the following: In football everything is complicated by the presence of the opposite team. The term “football” corresponds to “soccer” …
Quote Origin: Words Make You Think a Thought. Music Makes You Feel a Feeling. A Song Makes You Feel a Thought
Yip Harburg? Jay Gorney? Caryl Brahms? Ned Sherrin? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A prominent songwriter once stated that words are used to make a person think a thought, and music is used to make a person feel a feeling, but the goal of a song is different and more powerful: A song makes you …
Quote Origin: All of Bach, Streamed Out Into Space, Over and Over Again. We Would Be Bragging
Carl Sagan? Lewis Thomas? Douglas Adams? Stephen Fry? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Suppose humanity decided to deliberately send a message out into space. What should be included in that message which might someday be read by a hypothetical alien civilization? In fact, the U.S. launched two robotic interstellar probes in 1977, Voyager 1 …
Quote Origin: People Do Not Stop Playing Because They Grow Old; They Grow Old Because They Stop Playing
Herbert Spencer? G. Stanley Hall? Karl Groos? George L. Knapp? George Bernard Shaw? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Children enjoy playing, yet this rambunctious and exploratory spirit often fades with age. The following adage encourages the retention of a youthful temperament. Here are four versions: (1) People do not cease playing because they grow old, …
Quote Origin: I Am Not Innarested In Your Horrible Disease
William S. Burroughs? Kenneth Turan? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The transgressive Beat Generation author William Burroughs once wrote something like the following: I am not innarested in your horrible disease. I recall reading this many years ago. The word “interested” was deliberately written with the nonstandard spelling “innarested”. Maybe my memory is flawed because …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: I Am Not Innarested In Your Horrible Disease”
Quote Origin: We Learn From History That We Do Not Learn From History
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel? Aldous Huxley? George Bernard Shaw? Henry Tizard? Caroline Thomas Harnsberger? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The historical record displays clear patterns, yet there is enormous resistance to learning from these patterns. Here are two versions of a humorously contradictory adage: (1) We learn from history that we do not learn from …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: We Learn From History That We Do Not Learn From History”