Bill Vaughan? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: I once read a humorous comment about New Year’s Eve that contrasted the experiences of the young and the middle aged. The young were joyful because they were “allowed to stay up late” while the older people held a different opinion. Are you familiar with this joke and its …
Yearly Archives: 2013
The Final Test of a Gentleman: His Respect for Those Who Can Be of No Possible Service to Him
William Lyon Phelps? Apocryphal? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: I noticed that you have quotations from J. K. Rowling, Malcolm Forbes, and Paul Eldridge about how to evaluate the character of an individual. Here is another saying of this type that is credited to a charismatic Yale professor named William Lyon Phelps: It is the final …
I Know Only Two Tunes: One of Them Is Yankee Doodle, and the Other Isn’t
Ulysses S. Grant? Abraham Lincoln? W. S. Gilbert? William Tecumseh Sherman? Victor Borge? Richie Havens? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: The holiday season is filled with singing, but my talent in this domain can be accurately summarized with the following quotation: I know only two tunes: one of them is “Yankee Doodle,” and the other isn’t. …
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We Don’t Know Who Discovered Water, But We Know It Wasn’t a Fish
Marshall McLuhan? Albert Einstein? Clyde Kluckhohn? Pierce Butler? James C. Coleman? John H. Fisher? John Culkin? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Sometimes an individual embedded in a particular culture or environment can become blind to the prevailing norms within his or her domain. I have heard a figurative expression that illustrates this predicament. Here are three …
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What You Are Comes To You
Ralph Waldo Emerson? Norman Vincent Peale? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: The following statement is often attributed to the famous philosopher and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson: What you are comes to you. Some adherents of “New Thought” and “New Age” belief systems view this as a spiritual law. This saying reminded me of the quasi-mystical book …
There Was a Young Lady Named Bright Whose Speed Was Far Faster Than Light
Bishop of Chelmsford? A. H. Reginald Buller? Albert Einstein? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: There is a popular comical limerick about a young woman named White or Bright that highlights the counterintuitive nature of time measurements in Einstein’s theory of relativity. Do you know this poem? Do you know who composed it? Quote Investigator: The earliest …
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Life Is Not Measured By the Number of Breaths We Take, But By the Moments That Take Our Breath Away
George Carlin? Maya Angelou? Vicki Corona? Hilary Cooper? Kevin Bisch? Will Smith? Philip James Bailey? Dear Quote Investigator: The following inspirational quotation has been attributed to a wide variety of people: Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. I doubt that this …
The More Sand Has Escaped from the Hourglass of Our Life, the Clearer We Should See Through It
Niccolò Machiavelli? Jean-Paul Sartre? Jean Paul? Johann Paul Friedrich Richter? Dear Quote Investigator: A student would like to use the following quotation about perspicacity gained through experience in a yearbook, but she has been unable to determine an appropriate ascription: The more sand has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should …
There Must Be a Pony Somewhere
James Kirkwood Jr.? Ronald Reagan? Ken Kesey? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: There is a famous joke about a child who wakes up on Christmas morning and is surprised to find a heap of horse manure under the tree instead of a collection of presents. Yet, the child is not discouraged because he has an extraordinarily …
You Cannot Fool All the People All the Time
Abraham Lincoln? Jacques Abbadie? Denis Diderot? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: One of the most famous sayings attributed to Abraham Lincoln is about deception: You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time. I was astounded to …
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