Tracing Quotations
Samuel Taylor Coleridge? Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley? Don Marquis? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: While perusing the book “Dim Wit: The Stupidest Quotes of All Time” I came across an entertaining topic for Halloween in the following entry about a famous poet: Samuel Taylor Coleridge was asked, “Do you believe in ghosts?” “No, ma’am,” he replied, …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: I Do Not Believe in Ghosts Because I Have Seen Too Many of Them”
Elbert Hubbard? Apocryphal? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: I’m intrigued by the following counter-intuitive adage: The love we give away is the only love we keep. Would you please explore its provenance? Reply from Quote Investigator: Elbert Hubbard was the founder of a community of artisans called Roycrofters who were located in East Aurora, New …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: The Love You Give Away Is the Only Love You Keep”
Edgar Allan Poe? Germaine de Staël? Bert Leston Taylor? Charles A. Dana? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: There is a family of quips that express a comically contradictory attitude toward specters. Here are three instances: I do not believe in ghosts, but I am awfully afraid of them. I don’t believe in ghosts, but I’ve …
Continue reading “I Do Not Believe in Ghosts, But I Am Awfully Afraid of Them”
Stephanie Herrera? Chris Boeskool? Mike Jebbett? Jesse Alan Downs? Brian Sims? Clay Shirky? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Activists have formulated an adage about privilege that has achieved wide distribution: When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression Would you please examine its provenance? Reply from Quote Investigator: This thought can be expressed in …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: When You’re Accustomed to Privilege, Equality Feels Like Oppression”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge? Tryon Edwards? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: My favorite poem is “Kubla Khan; or, A Vision in a Dream: A Fragment” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. I love the poem’s opium inspired image of a “stately pleasure dome”. Serendipitously, I came across an insightful remark ascribed to Coleridge that contrasted different types of …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Leave Him With a Favorable Opinion of Himself”
Pablo Picasso? Jean Renoir? Garson Kanin? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Critics discuss abstruse theories of creativity and engage in esoteric scrutiny of aesthetics while artists are primarily concerned with the practical. Admittedly, this is an oversimplification. Here is a statement that makes a similar point: When art critics get together they talk about form …
Gloria Steinem? Irina Dunn? Erica Jong? Florynce Kennedy? Charles S. Harris? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: A famous feminist slogan asserts that a woman is capable of living a complete and independent life without a man. Here are two versions: Would you please explore the origin of this saying? Reply from Quote Investigator: The earliest …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: A Woman Without a Man Is Like a Fish Without a Bicycle”
Tony Daniels? Edmund Vance Cooke? James J. Montague? Carolyn McKane? Tom Robbins? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: There are many upbeat sayings on your website, but I would like you to explore a popular motto of the disaffected. Here are four versions: Life is hard and then you die. Life is rough and then you …
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Winston Churchill? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Genuine free speech entails disagreement and debate; it is never a one-sided notion. According to a Facebook meme Winston Churchill supposedly said: Some people’s idea of free speech is that they are free to say what they like, but if anyone says anything back, that is an outrage. …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: If Anyone Says Anything Back, That Is an Outrage”
Abraham Lincoln? James Russell Lowell? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Intelligent and thoughtful people maintain mental flexibility throughout life. It is irrational to rigidly adhere to a fixed opinion in the face of reliable contrary information. Abraham Lincoln supposedly said: The foolish and the dead alone never change their opinions. These words have also been …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: The Foolish and the Dead Alone Never Change Their Opinion”