Horatio Nelson? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: Horatio Nelson was a famous British naval hero who died at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Apparently, he believed that advance readiness was crucial to his success. He said that he owed everything to always being fifteen or twenty minutes early. Would you please help me to find …
Monthly Archives: February 2017
Friendship Itself Will Not Stand the Strain of Very Much Good Advice for Very Long
Robert Wilson Lynd? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Providing copious assertive advice to a friend can jeopardize the relationship especially when the advice has not been solicited. The Irish journalist and essayist Robert Lynd crafted a remark about these strains with a humorous edge. Would you please help me to find a citation? Quote Investigator: In …
Good Judgment Depends Mostly on Experience and Experience Usually Comes from Poor Judgment
Rita Mae Brown? Will Rogers? Fred Rose? C. H. White? Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr.? Uncle Zeke? Barry LePatner? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Good judgement is rooted in experience, but a humorous addendum notes that the crucible of experience is poor judgment. This notion has been credited to humorist Will Rogers and activist Rita Mae Brown. …
Write Something, Even If It’s Just a Suicide Note
Gore Vidal? Lucinda Ebersole? Rand B. Lee? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Aspiring authors are typically told to set aside enough time to make writing into a daily habit. The provocative author Gore Vidal apparently employed an extreme version of this injunction: Write something, even if it’s just a suicide note. Did Vidal coin this astringently …
Continue reading “Write Something, Even If It’s Just a Suicide Note”
There’s Damn Few Girls as Well Shaped as a Fine Horse
Hannah Arendt? Christopher Morley? Kitty Foyle? Rosey Rittenhouse? Dear Quote Investigator: While looking through a compilation of quotations about horses I came across the following: Few girls are as well shaped as a good horse. Inexplicably, the words were ascribed to the political theorist Hannah Arendt who wrote about the Nazi Adolf Eichmann and popularized …
Continue reading “There’s Damn Few Girls as Well Shaped as a Fine Horse”
Pogo Comic on Extraterrestrials: Either Way, It’s a Mighty Soberin’ Thought
Pogo? Porky Pine? Walt Kelly? Timothy Ferris? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: The comic strip “Pogo” by Walt Kelly combined beautiful artwork with entertaining wordplay and satire. Kelly also expressed a delightful sense of wonder as in the following supposed remark about the possibility of extraterrestrial life: Thar’s only two possibilities: Thar is life out there …
Continue reading “Pogo Comic on Extraterrestrials: Either Way, It’s a Mighty Soberin’ Thought”
Put All Your Eggs in One Basket, and Then Watch That Basket
Mark Twain? Andrew Carnegie? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Proverbial wisdom tells us never to put all our eggs in one basket, but an inversion of that advice has been ascribed to the renowned humorist Mark Twain and the business titan Andrew Carnegie. Who should receive credit? Quote Investigator: On June 23, 1885 Andrew Carnegie addressed …
Continue reading “Put All Your Eggs in One Basket, and Then Watch That Basket”
If You Have Two Friends in Your Lifetime, You’re Lucky. If You Have One Good Friend, You’re More than Lucky
S. E. Hinton? David Viscott? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: An article by Ed Yong about crabs on the website of “The Atlantic” contained an arresting quotation about the rarity of strong friendship. The words were ascribed to the prominent young-adult novelist S. E. Hinton (Susan Eloise Hinton). Would you please help me to find a …
Don’t Tell Yer Trouble to Others. Most of ‘Em Don’t Care a Hang; an’ the Rest Are Damn Glad of It
Robert Haven Schauffler? Nantucket Sea Captain? Rita P.? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Whenever I am tempted to complain about a setback in my life I recollect a wry piece of advice. Here are two versions: Never tell people your troubles. Half of them don’t care and the other half will be glad it happened to …
There Is Surely Nothing Quite So Useless as Doing with Great Efficiency What Should Not Be Done At All
Peter Drucker? Gore Vidal? Professor Giddings? Jesse H. Shera? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: I belong to an organization which is expending an inordinate effort perfecting the execution of a task that is peripheral to its mission. A famous management guru spoke about the pointlessness of efficiently performing a function that should not be done at …