Leonard Bernstein? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The late 1960s and early 1970s were a time of societal upheaval and uncertainty in the United States. The prominent conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein who was well-known for crafting the music of “West Side Story” delivered a speech during which he asserted that only the artists of …
Monthly Archives: December 2014
Quote Origin: Give the People What They Want and They’ll Come
Humorist: Red Skelton? George Jessel? Goodman Ace? Groucho Marx? Bert Lahr? James Bacon? Funeral: Harry Cohn? Louis B. Mayer? Question for Quote Investigator: A show business platitude states that success at the box office is achievable by simply giving the people what they want. A harsh comical anecdote about a funeral reinterpreted this saying. The …
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Quote Origin: Duty Comes Before Pleasure, But Only in the Dictionary
Harold L. Spence? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: You examined an adage about success and work that cleverly referred to their alphabetical order. I’ve seen a different joke about duty and pleasure: Duty comes before pleasure, but only in the dictionary. Would you please explore this saying? Reply from Quote Investigator: The earliest instance of …
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Quote Origin: Animal Rights and Beings from Another Planet
George Bernard Shaw? John Harris? Brigid Brophy? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: George Bernard Shaw was a strong advocate of vegetarianism who was greatly concerned with animal welfare. The following statement attributed to Shaw encouraged the reader to embrace an abstract extraplanetary perspective and asked the reader to condemn the instrumental use of animals for …
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