Tracing Quotations
Ray Bradbury? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: On Facebook I saw the following quotation displayed on a star-filled picture: We are an impossibility in an impossible universe The words were attributed to the prominent science fiction author Ray Bradbury, but I haven’t been able to find a citation. Would you please help? Reply from Quote …
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Helen Keller? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A wise statement about true happiness and its connection to the pursuit of a worthwhile objective has been attributed to the blind social activist Helen Keller. Are you familiar with this saying and is the ascription accurate? Reply from Quote Investigator: Hellen Keller maintained a journal during the …
Edward R. Murrow? David Horsey? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: In March 2016 the political cartoonist and commentator David Horsey of the “Los Angeles Times” published a cartoon showing the prominent journalist Edward R. Murrow seated in front of a television screen that displayed a group of angry clowns. The quotation accompanying the illustration compared …
Albert Einstein? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A learner may accumulate a large number of miscellaneous pieces of information without achieving an integrated understanding and without acquiring an ability to use the material intelligently. Reportedly, Albert Einstein made a germane remark: Education is not the learning of facts, but the training of minds to think. …
W. C. Fields? Ben Hecht? Gene Fowler? Thomas Mitchell? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The brilliant comedian and movie actor W. C. Fields led an unrestrained showbiz life displaying a fondness for alcohol and mistresses. He was not known as a religious man, but as his death approached he began to peruse the Bible. When …
Vladimir Nabokov? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The Russian-American novelist Vladimir Nabokov was a consummate prose stylist. When he was a professor teaching his students about literature he apparently shared the following candid opinion: Literature is of no practical value whatsoever. Is this quotation accurate? Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1980 the posthumous book “Lectures …
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J. B. S. Haldane? John Maynard Smith? W. D. Hamilton? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Kin selection is an important and sometimes controversial idea in genetics. The prominent biologist J. B. S. Haldane reportedly said: I would gladly give up my life for two brothers or eight cousins. I have been unable to find a …
Derek Bok? Ann Landers? Char Meyers? Robert Orben? John Lubbock? P. B. de La Bruère? Rev. S. C. Morris? Charles Duncan Mclver? Albert Einstein? Barack Obama? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: The cost of attending college has been increasing more rapidly than the rate of inflation for decades in the U.S. Students and parents have …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: If You Think Education Is Expensive, Try Ignorance”
Samuel Johnson? James Boswell? Thomas Carlyle? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Two statements that sound the same but have very different meanings have been attributed to the esteemed dictionary maker and man of letters Samuel Johnson: 1) Clear your mind of cant. 2) Clear your mind of can’t. In the first statement the noun “cant” …
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David Bowie? Alan B. Krueger? David Kusek? Gerd Leonhard? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Music streaming services such as Spotify, Pandora, and Apple Music have grown greatly in popularity and power in recent times. Some pundits assert that music in the future will be viewed as a utility like water, gas, or electricity. But this …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Music Itself Is Going To Become Like Running Water or Electricity”