Austin Kleon? T. S. Eliot? C. E. M. Joad? Anonymous?
Mashup of Van Gogh’s paintings “Sunflowers” and “Starry Night”
Question for Quote Investigator: The recent creation of artificial intelligence systems that generate text, images, and videos has caused ferocious controversy and motivated several copyright lawsuits. The current generation of popular AI systems are trained using billions of webpages and billions of images.
The nature of human originality is undergoing careful scrutiny. One influential viewpoint states that every idea which appears to be new is really a mashup or a remix of previous ideas. About a decade ago I read a similar statement in a book about art and creativity. Would you please help me to find a citation?
Reply from Quote Investigator: In 2012 artist Austin Kleon published the best-seller “Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative”. The first chapter contained the following statement. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
Every new idea is just a mashup or a remix of one or more previous ideas.
Please note that this remark is about human creativity, and it does not entail any specific viewpoint about AI systems and copyright.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe? Carl Sandburg? Ruth Strang? Johann Peter Eckermann? John Oxenford? Henry R. Tedder? Apocryphal?
Painting of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe created circa 1787
Question for Quote Investigator: When the famous German intellectual Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was an octogenarian he spoke to a friend about the effort required to read a text carefully and deeply. He said something like the following:
Ordinary people know little of the time and effort it takes to learn to read. I have been at it eighty years, and have not reached my goal.
I have not been able to find a citation for this statement. Hence, I am not certain whether it is accurate.
I believe that the U.S. poet and biographer Carl Sandburg also commented on the multi-decade process of learning to read productively. Would you please explore the provenance of this saying?
Reply from Quote Investigator: Johann Peter Eckermann served as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s personal secretary during the final decade of his life. After Goethe’s death Eckermann published a multi-volume work titled “Gespräche mit Goethe” (“Conversations with Goethe”) which included an entry dated January 25, 1830. Here is a translation of an excerpt. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
He then joked about the difficulty of reading and the arrogance of many people who want to read every philosophical and scientific work straight away without any preliminary studies or preparatory knowledge, as if it were nothing more than a novel.
“The good people,” he continued, “don’t know how much time and effort it cost to learn to read. It took me eighty years to do it and I still can’t say that I’ve reached my goal.”
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
Question for Quote Investigator: Progress on artificial intelligence during the 2010s and 2020s has been remarkable. The AlphaFold computer program developed by DeepMind employed machine learning techniques with deep neural networks to successfully predict protein structures. The AlphaGo program used a tree search algorithm together with deep neural networks to beat the best humans at the board game Go. The company OpenAI used large language models (LLMs) and reinforcement learning to build the GPT family of chatbots which displayed powerful new capabilities.
Yet, the prominent computer scientist Yann LeCun has expressed skepticism about current progress in AI and about the near-term prospects. LeCun is a Professor at New York University and the Chief AI Scientist at Meta. He won the prestigious Turing Award in 2018 together with two colleagues.
LeCun stated that researchers must first reach cat-level AI and dog-level AI before they have a chance of reaching human-level AI. I am not sure of his precise phrasing. Would you please help me to find a citation?
Reply from Quote Investigator: In February 2023 Yann LeCun posted the following message on x-twitter. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
Before we reach Human-Level AI (HLAI), we will have to reach Cat-Level & Dog-Level AI. We are nowhere near that. We are still missing something big. LLM’s linguistic abilities notwithstanding. A house cat has way more common sense and understanding of the world than any LLM.
Yann LeCun has been referring to animal intelligence as an important AI benchmark for several years. For example, in 2018 he posted an x-tweet containing the following lines:2
Right now, we need to get machines to the level of a house cat. Never mind symbolic mathematics and formal logic.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
Avatar icons representing professions from Pixabay
Question for Quote Investigator: The following remark about selecting a career is comically acerbic:
If you want to be a grocer, or a general, or a politician, or a judge, you will invariably become it; that is your punishment.
The statement above has been attributed to the famous Irish playwright and wit Oscar Wilde, but I am skeptical. There is a second part to the remark which comments on an artistic life:
If you live what some might call the dynamic life, but i will call the artistic life, if each day you are unsure of who you are and what you know, you will never become anything, and that is your reward.
Would you please explore the provenance of these statements?
Reply from Quote Investigator: These statements were spoken by the popular English actor and broadcaster Stephen Fry in 2010. Fry attributed the words to Oscar Wilde, but QI believes that Fry was really presenting a rough paraphrase and interpretation of a passage written by Wilde in his essay/letter titled “De Profundis” which was composed while Wilde was in prison in 1897.
“De Profundis” was published posthumously in 1905. Boldface added to excerpts by QI. The term “gaol” is an alternative spelling of “jail”:1
People point to Reading Gaol and say, ‘That is where the artistic life leads a man.’ Well, it might lead to worse places. The more mechanical people to whom life is a shrewd speculation depending on a careful calculation of ways and means, always know where they are going, and go there.
They start with the ideal desire of being the parish beadle, and in whatever sphere they are placed they succeed in being the parish beadle and no more.
A man whose desire is to be something separate from himself, to be a member of Parliament, or a successful grocer, or a prominent solicitor, or a judge, or something equally tedious, invariably succeeds in being what he wants to be. That is his punishment. Those who want a mask have to wear it.
But with the dynamic forces of life, and those in whom those dynamic forces become incarnate, it is different. People whose desire is solely for self-realization never know where they are going. They can’t know.
In one sense of the word it is of course necessary , as the Greek oracle said, to know oneself : that is the first achievement of knowledge. But to recognise that the soul of a man is unknowable, is the ultimate achievement of wisdom . . .
I hope to live long enough and to produce work of such a character that I shall be able at the end of my days to say, ‘Yes! this is just where the artistic life leads a man!’
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan? Robert Lenzer? John Rhoades? Ann Landers? Apocryphal?
Illustration of a wooden gavel and sounding block from Unsplash
Question for Quote Investigator: A society which grants wide liberties and constitutional rights to engage in speech and action will contain people who are performing activities deemed distasteful or reprehensible by many. The following remark is pertinent:
You have to be careful to protect the rights of people you despise.
This statement has been attributed to U.S. politician and diplomat Daniel Patrick Moynihan, but I am having trouble trying to locate a precise citation. Would you please help me?
Reply from Quote Investigator: In November 1996 a “Forbes” magazine article by journalist Robert Lenzer reported on individuals in the U.S. who had acquired great wealth and did not wish to pay taxes. These individuals renounced their U.S. citizenship and became citizens of other countries such as the Bahamas to avoid paying taxes. The term “taxpatriate” was used to describe these people. “Forbes” published comments from Moynihan. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
The matter isn’t settled. Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D-N.Y.), the Senate Finance Committee’s ranking Democrat, thinks that treating taxpatriates like illegal immigrants is a bad idea.
“You have to be careful to protect the rights of people you despise,” says Moynihan. “Our legislation which called for a capital gains tax on appreciated assets as the price of expatriation was a fairer way to deal with the problem. What passed was a bad bill.”
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
Theodore Roosevelt? Margaret Tyson? Zig Ziglar? John C. Maxwell? James F. Hind? Beltone Hearing Aid Company?
Items used to care for medical patients fron Unsplash
Question for Quote Investigator: Interpersonal relationships are based on trust. A knowledgeable person can be impressive, but another quality is more important when establishing a connection. Here is a pertinent adage:
People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.
This statement has been attributed to U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, motivational speaker Zig Ziglar, best-selling author John C. Maxwell, and others. Yet, I have not seen any definitive citations. Would you please help trace this statement?
Reply from Quote Investigator: This clever saying employs a rhetorical device called antimetabole. Key words in the first half of the statement are reordered in the second half.
QI has found no evidence that Theodore Roosevelt used this expression. The earliest match located by QI appeared in a 1959 commencement speech by Margaret Tyson who was the Dean of the School of Nursing at the University of Virginia. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
Nurses graduating from a course at King’s Daughter’s Hospital here last night were told that “People won’t care how much you know unless they really know how much you care.”
Margaret Tyson is a candidate for creator of the saying, but QI conjectures that the saying was already in circulation, and the originator remains anonymous.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
Illustration of a stamp which displays “CANCELLED” from Pixabay
Question for Quote Investigator: Social media enables people to express righteous indignation by joining together to form electronic mobs. The chance to target and maltreat individuals while maintaining a good conscience is psychologically appealing. The opportunity to hurt and pull down others is enticing to some people.
Apparently, the English writer and philosopher Aldous Huxley made an observation of this type before the existence of social media. Huxley’s remark supposedly appeared in the novel “Crome Yellow”, but I have carefully examined that book, and I was unable to find any matching statement. This situation is confusing. Would you please explore this topic?
Reply from Quote Investigator: Aldous Huxley was commissioned to write an introduction to a collector’s edition of Samuel Butler’s nineteenth century novel “Erewhon”. Huxley placed the date of July 24, 1933 at the end of his introduction, and the book was issued by the Limited Editions Club in 1934. Huxley commented on the motivations of people. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
The surest way to work up a crusade in favour of some good cause is to promise people that they will have a chance of maltreating someone. Men must be bribed to build up and do good by the offer of an opportunity to hurt and pull down. To be able to destroy with a good conscience, to be able to behave badly and call your bad behavior ‘righteous indignation’—this is the height of psychological luxury, the most delicious of moral treats.
QI has searched the 1921 satirical novel “Crome Yellow”2 by Huxley for the phrases “righteous indignation”, “good conscience”, and “pull down”. There were no matches for these phrases in the book.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
Knute Rockne? Red Auerbach?Robert Zuppke?Fred Taylor? Richard Nixon? Jimmy Carter? Anonymous?
Illustration of a trophy for the winner
Question for Quote Investigator: Any participant in competitive sports must eventually experience defeat. The value of good sportsmanship has been emphasized by many mentors. Different terms have been employed to contrast the divergent reactions to defeat: “gracious loser”, “good loser”, “poor loser”, “angry loser”, and “sore loser”.
A controversial adage emerged from sports coaches in the twentieth century which suggested that a loss should make a person unhappy and should provide a strong impetus for future improvement:
Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a loser.
This saying has been attributed to U.S. football coach Knute Rockne, U.S. basketball coach Red Auerbach, U.S. football coach Vince Lombardi, and many others. I have not seen any solid citations. Would you please explore this topic?
Reply from Quote Investigator: The saying evolved over time, and there are many variants which makes it difficult to trace. The earliest exact match known to QI appeared in 1962 when it was spoken by Gus Doerner who was a U.S. basketball player and coach. Yet, QI believes the expression was already in circulation. The creator remains anonymous.
Below is an overview of the evolution with dates and attributions:
1904 Jul: If I may not win, make me a good loser (Anonymous)
1907 Jun: The “good loser” is blamed seldom any old kind of a winner (Jim Nasium)
1924 Nov: A good loser is no good (Robert Zuppke)
1938 Jun: Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a man without guts (Anonymous)
1940 Oct: Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a streak of yellow (Anonymous)
1943 Aug: Show me a good loser, and I will show you a failure (Attributed to Knute Rockne by George Strickler)
1946 Jan: Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a guy without an ounce of competitive spirit in his makeup (Lee Dunbar)
1948 Dec: Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a failure (Attributed to Knute Rockne by John Mooney)
1952 Mar: Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a consistent loser (John Mooney)
1956 Jan: Show me a good loser and I’ll show you an idiot (Attributed to Paul Gilbert by Bennett Cerf)
1957 Sep: Show me a good loser and I’ll show you an unsuccessful man (Attributed to Knute Rockne by Paul Steiner)
1959 Mar: Show me a good loser and I’ll show you someone who never wins (Fred Taylor)
1960 Apr: Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a guy who is going to lose most of the time (Carl Rees)
1960 Jun: Good losers get lots of practice (Benny Marshall)
1962 Apr: Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a loser (Gus Doerner)
1963 Jun: Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a loser (Frankie Albert)
1965 Apr: Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a loser (Red Auerbach)
1975 Jul: Show me a good loser in professional sports, and I’ll show you an idiot. (Leo Durocher)
1975: You show me a good loser and I will show you a loser (Credited to Anonymous by Jimmy Carter)
1978: Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a loser (Attributed to Wallace Newman by Richard Nixon)
1982 May: Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a loser (Credited to Anonymous by Paul Newman)
2010: Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a loser (Attributed to Vince Lombardi by John Marlowe)
Below are details for selected citations in chronological order.
Lady Bird Johnson? Claudia Alta Johnson? Jill Biden? Henry Seldis?
Allusive illustration of a soul from Pixabay
Question for Quote Investigator: A First Lady of the United States once spoke about the importance of experiencing great art. She said that art was the window of person’s soul. Art was required to see beyond the immediate everyday world and to see the inner world.
I do not recall the precise phrasing. Would you please help me to identify the speaker, and to find a citation?
Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1964 the sculpture garden of the Museum of Modern Art in New York was considerably enlarged. The First Lady of the United States Claudia Alta Johnson spoke at the rededication ceremony. She was known to the public as Lady Bird Johnson. The art critic of the “Los Angeles Times” Henry Seldis reported the words of Johnson. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
“This great and growing museum makes it possible to leave our ‘dailyness’ and see what we never saw before in the daily round—for art is the window of man’s soul. Without it, he would never be able to see beyond his immediate world; nor could the world see the man within.
“We are so often pictured as a society entirely devoted to technological advance that it is good to have this abundant proof to the contrary,” the First Lady said.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
John McCarthy? Pamela McCorduck? Bertram Raphael? Donald Michie? Melanie Mitchell? Bertrand Meyer? Anonymous?
Visual metaphor of a brain-like circuit from Unsplash
Question for Quote Investigator: Pioneering artificial intelligence (AI) researchers tackled a variety of challenging problems. One early goal was the development of symbolic mathematics systems capable of performing polynomial factorization, integration, and differentiation. Researchers made such great progress that this field was reclassified. It was no longer part of AI; instead, it became a subfield of algorithm design and analysis.
In 1997 the Deep Blue chess computer triumphed over world champion Garry Kasparov. The system employed a massive brute-force game-tree search. The victory was a milestone, but some researchers believed that the system was no longer part of AI research.
In general, if a problem is effectively solvable then it is no longer deemed an appropriate task for AI. Here are two versions of a comment about this phenomenon that is both wistful and mordant:
(1) As soon as it works, no one calls it AI anymore. (2) If it works, it isn’t AI.
This notion has been attributed to several AI researchers including John McCarthy and Edward Feigenbaum. I am having difficulty finding solid citations. Would you please explore this topic?
Reply from Quote Investigator: This notion is difficult to trace because it can be expressed in many different ways. Below is an overview showing the evolution via key statements together with dates:
1971: AI is a collective name for problems which we do not yet know how to solve properly by computer [Attributed to Bertram Raphael by Donald Michie]
1979: Every time somebody figured out how to make a computer do something—play good checkers, solve simple but relatively informal problems—there was a chorus of critics to say, but that’s not thinking [Pamela McCorduck]
1979: AI is whatever hasn’t been done yet [Attributed to Larry Tesler by Douglas Hofstadter]
1982 May: If it’s useful, it isn’t AI [Anonymous]
1982 Sep: If you can understand how it works, it isn’t AI [Anonymous]
1983 May: If you do know what you’re doing (or if you find out), it isn’t AI anymore [Beau Sheil]
1984: If it works, it isn’t AI [Anonymous]
1984 Feb: Anything computers can’t yet do is AI [Anonymous]
1984 Sep: It it’s useful, it isn’t AI [Anonymous]
1985: If you understand how it works, it isn’t AI [Anonymous]
1985 Apr: When an AI idea is turned into a useful system, in some sense it isn’t AI anymore [Roger Schank and Larry Hunter]
1985 Jun: Once they are thoroughly solved, they are not AI anymore but just another computer program [Severo Ornstein]
1988: If it works, it isn’t AI [Attributed to Edward Feigenbaum]
2011 Oct: As soon as it works, no one calls it AI anymore [Attributed to John McCarthy by Bertrand Meyer]
2017: Intelligence is whatever machines haven’t done yet [Attributed to Larry Tesler by Garry Kasparov]
Below are details for selected citations in chronological order.
