William Faulkner? Peter De Vries? Herman Wouk? W. Somerset Maugham? Jane Yolen? Raymond Chandler? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: As a writer I find the following quotation about motivation both amusing and invigorating: I write when I’m inspired, and I see to it that I’m inspired at nine o’clock every morning. I have seen these words …
Yearly Archives: 2013
Let Us Make a Special Effort to Stop Communicating with Each Other, So We Can Have Some Conversation
Mark Twain? Miss Manners? Judith Martin? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: I am considering using a quotation that is attributed to Mark Twain in the conclusion of my Master’s Thesis about social media. Unfortunately, I have been unable to verify the ascription, and the origin of the expression is uncertain: Let us make a special effort …
Quote Origin: Kindness Is a Language Which the Deaf Can Hear and the Blind Can See
Mark Twain? Christian Nestell Bovee? Eva Alice? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Recently I clicked on a link that led to a top business-oriented website and was greeted by an interstitial page that displayed a quotation attributed to Mark Twain: Kindness is a language which the deaf and the blind can read. I thought this …
He Who Would Pun Would Pick a Pocket
Alexander Pope? Samuel Johnson? Jonathan Swift? John Dennis? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: I have heard several versions of a quotation that is beloved by people who dislike puns: (1) He who would make a pun would pick a pocket. (2) A man who will pun, will pick a pocket. (3) A man who could make …
Drawing on My Fine Command of Language, I Said Nothing
Robert Benchley? Lon Robinson? Joseph Charles Salak? Bruce Caldwell? H. M. Stansifer? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Some people never know when to stop talking. I wish more people knew about the following quotation. Here are two versions: Drawing on my fine command of language, I said nothing. Drawing on my fine command of the English …
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It’s Difficult to Make Predictions, Especially About the Future
Niels Bohr? Samuel Goldwyn? K. K. Steincke? Robert Storm Petersen? Yogi Berra? Mark Twain? Nostradamus? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: There is a family of popular humorous sayings about the formidable task of successful prognostication. Here are five examples: It is difficult to make predictions, especially about the future. Predictions are hazardous, especially about the future. …
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History Does Not Repeat Itself. The Historians Repeat One Another
Max Beerbohm? Rupert Brooke? Philip Guedalla? Oscar Wilde? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: I have heard two distinct, humorous, and antithetical sayings about the composition of history: 1) History repeats itself, and the historians repeat each other 2) History does not repeat itself. The historians repeat each other. Statements of this type have been attributed to …
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It Is the Best Play I Ever Slept Through
Oscar Wilde? Myron W. Reed? Will Rogers? Charlie Carter? Dear Quote Investigator: Several weeks ago I saw an article with the following humorous title: Why Arianna’s Talk Was the Best I’ve Ever Slept Through The piece was actually a very positive assessment and summary of a talk delivered by Arianna Huffington, founder of The Huffington …
Never Answer an Anonymous Letter
Yogi Berra? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: Would you please explore another Yogiism? The following comical remark is attributed to the celebrated baseball player: Never answer an anonymous letter. If the letter contains no information about the sender then, of course, it is impossible to reply. That is the humorous interpretation. But Yogi Berra once noted …
The Question Isn’t Who Is Going to Let Me, It’s Who Is Going to Stop Me
Ayn Rand? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: The Newsfeed section of the Time magazine website recently wrote about a successful fashion retailer which was selling a shirt called an “Unstoppable Muscle Tee” that displayed a quotation attributed to a top-selling author and controversial philosopher: “The question isn’t who is going to let me, it’s who is …
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