Tracing Quotations
Albert Einstein? Cell Phone Critics? Pranksters? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: A friend sent me a link to a message on a website with the title: “The day that Albert Einstein feared may have finally arrived”. The message showed eight pictures of groups of people looking intently at cell phone screens. The people were ignoring one …
Continue reading “I Fear the Day That Technology Will Surpass Our Human Interaction”
Carl Sagan? Newsweek Reporters? Sharon Begley? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: Today on the website of a software developer I saw an inspiring quotation that was credited to the famous astronomer and science communicator Carl Sagan: Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. I would like to use this quotation also, but I have not …
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Coco Chanel? Yves Saint Laurent? Diana Vreeland? Pier Luigi Nervi? Tom Stoppard? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: The fashion designer Coco Chanel was brilliant and innovative. I am interested in a motto that she may have originated: Fashion passes; style remains. When did she say this? Quote Investigator: The earliest close match for this phrase known …
Winston Churchill? Theodore Roosevelt? Zig Ziglar? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: I work in an office where they hang inspirational posters on the wall. The caption of one sign credits the following words to the master orator Winston Churchill: Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference. I think that the person who created …
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A. A. Milne? Alfred E. Neuman? Winnie the Pooh? The Foolish Almanak? Theodor Rosyfelt? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: I saw the following entertaining quotation on several websites where it was ascribed to the Winnie-the-Pooh character of the author A. A. Milne: People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day. I searched for …
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Steve Jobs? Pablo Picasso? T. S. Eliot? W. H. Davenport Adams? Lionel Trilling? Igor Stravinsky? William Faulkner? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: The gifted entrepreneur Steve Jobs made some controversial comments about innovation during his career. He expressed strong agreement with the following aphorism which he ascribed to the famous painter Pablo Picasso: Good artists copy; …
Joseph Campbell? Ogden Nash? Brendan Gill? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Here is a quick question. Which of the following quotations is accurate? There is not one shred of evidence that life is serious. —Joseph Campbell There is not a shred of evidence that life is serious —Ogden Nash Not a shred of evidence exists in …
Continue reading “Not a Shred of Evidence Exists in Favor of the Argument That Life Is Serious”
Dorothy Parker? Douglass Malluch? Douglas Malloch? Henry James? Credit Man for a New York Hat House? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: During a recent discussion with friends we tried to construct a list of great jokes that will be obsolete within a few decades. Here is one that is credited to the famous wit Dorothy Parker …
Continue reading “The Two Most Beautiful Words in the English Language Are “Check Enclosed””
George Orwell? V. G. Venturini? David Hoffman? Charlotte Despard? Antonio Gramsci? Anonymous? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: In 1949 George Orwell described a nightmarish future in his classic dystopian novel 1984. There is a popular quotation that is supposed to be contained within this work, but it is not there. Here are three versions: Maybe …
Continue reading “In a Time of Universal Deceit — Telling the Truth Is a Revolutionary Act”
George Bernard Shaw? Bertrand Russell? Oscar Wilde? John H. Gibbons? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: The following quotation is used by speakers who are planning to project a series of slides that are filled with statistics. The words are credited to the famous dramatist and intellectual George Bernard Shaw. Here are two versions: The sign of …
Continue reading “It Is the Mark of a Truly Intelligent Person To Be Moved By Statistics”