Margaret Mead? Jim Wright? John Peers? Meade? Red Green? Apocryphal? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: A very funny quotation about individuality has been attributed to the influential anthropologist Margaret Mead: Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else. I would like to include this in a book I am preparing, but I …
Monthly Archives: November 2014
Quote Origin: What Is Written Without Effort Is In General Read Without Pleasure
Samuel Johnson? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Whenever I experience difficulties while writing I recall a remark attributed to Samuel Johnson that is both cautionary and encouraging: What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure. I have not been able to find this statement in a book written by Johnson or by …
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Quote Origin: Easy Reading Is Hard Writing
Maya Angelou? Nathaniel Hawthorne? Thomas Hood? Richard Brinsley Sheridan? Charles Allston Collins? Anthony Trollope? Lord Byron? William Makepeace Thackeray? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Writers should strive to create texts that are informative, interesting, stimulating, and readable. But one of my favorite sayings reveals that this can be a remarkably difficult task: Easy reading is …
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Quote Origin: Easy Writing’s Vile Hard Reading
Richard Brinsley Sheridan? Lord Byron? Ernest Hemingway? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: There are two complementary and intertwined statements about reading and writing that I would like you to investigate: 1) Easy writing results in hard reading. 2) Easy reading requires hard writing. Many different phrases have been used to express these two thoughts, and …
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Quote Origin: The Man Who Views the World at 50 the Same as He Did at 20 Has Wasted 30 Years of His Life
Muhammad Ali? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: There is a statement attributed to Muhammad Ali about the natural changes in viewpoint an individual experiences during decades of growth and maturation. Ali stated that a person who does not change his or her perspective over a long period of time has wasted the years. Are you …