Plotinus? Herodotus? Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Many are familiar with the ancient Latin injunction of the poet Horace: “Carpe diem” or “Seize the day”. The following thematically similar statement has been attributed to other figures of the ancient world: the philosopher Plotinus and the historian Herodotus: Not to be involved …
Monthly Archives: March 2015
Quote Origin: Your Bald Head Feels as Smooth as My Wife’s Cheek
Marc Connelly? Nicholas Longworth? S. H. Hale? Franklin P. Adams? Apocryphal? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Recently I saw a list of the funniest ripostes, but it did not include the squelcher that I believe is the best. An unhappy card player wished to embarrass a bald man who was excelling. The disgruntled man placed …
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Quote Origin: Some Writers Are Only Born to Help Another Writer to Write One Sentence
Ernest Hemingway? Apocryphal Question for Quote Investigator: Questions about creative influence and artistic appropriation are often fraught with rivalry and controversy. I recall an extreme remark from the prominent writer Ernest Hemingway in which he asserted that the entire purpose of one artist might be to provide a single phrase or sentence to another artist. …
Quote Origin: If You Build a Better Mousetrap the World Will Beat a Path to Your Door
Ralph Waldo Emerson? Elbert Hubbard? Sarah S. B. Yule? John R. Paxton? Orison Swett Marden? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: A remarkably popular adage about innovation highlights mousetraps and celebrity: Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door. The origin of this saying was complex, and the topic has …
Quote Origin: Sometimes I’m Terrified of My Heart, of Its Constant Hunger for Whatever It Is It Wants
Edgar Allan Poe? Poe? Anne D. Danielewski? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Edgar Allan Poe authored groundbreaking tales in three different genres: horror, mystery, and science fiction. Numerous websites attribute the following emotion-laden passage to the literary master: Sometimes I’m terrified of my heart; of its constant hunger for whatever it is it wants; the …
Quote Origin: We Are Too Prone to Judge Ourselves by Our Ideals and Other People by Their Acts
Dwight Morrow? Harold Nicolson? Harold Nicholson? William Nevins? Tryon Edwards? Edward Wigglesworth? Stephen R. Covey? Question for Quote Investigator: There is a pervasive problem in human psychology of a self-serving double-standard that can be stated as follows: We judge ourselves by our ideals, but we judge others by their actions. This remark has been attributed …
Quote Origin: We Judge Ourselves by What We Feel Capable of Doing, While Others Judge Us by What We Have Already Done
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow? William Nevins? Stephen M. R. Covey? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: The way we judge ourselves often differs markedly from the way others judge us. We tend to evaluate ourselves based on what we are capable of doing, or what we intend to do, or what we say we will do. However, …
Quote Origin: He Who Laughs, Lasts
Mary Pettibone Poole? W. E. Nesom? George F. Worts? H. L. Mencken? Joe Laurie Jr.? Franklin P. Adams? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: There is a famous proverb that asserts the last person to laugh is the person who laughs the best or the longest. I am interested in a cleverly modified statement emphasizing the …
Quote Origin: To Fulfill a Dream, To Be Allowed to Sweat over Lovely Labor, To Be Given the Chance To Create, Is the Meat and Potatoes of Life. The Money Is the Gravy
Bette Davis? Richard Branson? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: In 2014 Richard Branson, the billionaire founder of the Virgin Group, wrote an essay discussing some of his favorite quotations. One motivational remark about creating and fulfilling a dream was attributed to the Hollywood star Bette Davis. Are you familiar with this quotation? Would you please …
Quote Origin: My Ancestors Didn’t Come Over on the Mayflower. They Were Just Standing There When It Docked
Will Rogers? J. J. Swartz? Owen Davis? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: The enormously popular American humorist Will Rogers had some ancestors who were Cherokee Indians, and apparently one of his jokes was about his forebears and the early European colonists who arrived on the Mayflower. Are you familiar with this quip? Was it really …