U.S. Airforce? U.S. Navy? Marines? U.S. Coastguard? Hugh S. Johnson? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: During a retirement party I heard the following humorous encomium: She did so much, with so little, for so long that she is now able to do everything with nothing. Would you please explore the history of this statement? Reply …
Monthly Archives: May 2017
Quote Origin: People Think They Are Thinking When They Are Merely Rearranging Their Prejudices
Edward R. Murrow? Knute Rockne? William James? William Fitzjames Oldham? Josh Billings? George Craig Stewart? Luther Burbank? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Changing deeply help opinions is very difficult. A brilliant and forceful quotation expresses this idea: Many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices. These words have been attributed …
Quote Origin: Man Will Atrophy All His Limbs But the Push-Button Finger
Frank Lloyd Wright? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A simple finger touch can make a phone call, play music, summon a taxi, obtain a weather forecast, pay a bill, and perform countless other tasks via apps. The famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright feared that in the future all of our body parts would atrophy except …
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Quote Origin: All Religion, My Friend, Is Simply Evolved Out of Chicanery, Fear, Greed, Imagination and Poetry
Edgar Allan Poe? William Barton? John A. Joyce? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The following remark has been ascribed to the master of mystery and the macabre Edgar Allan Poe Religion evolved out of fraud, fear, and greed. Is this quotation accurate? Reply from Quote Investigator: A controversial remark of this type was included in …
Quote Origin: Once You Replace Negative Thoughts with Positive Ones, You’ll Start Having Positive Results
Willie Nelson? Dale Carnegie? Norman Vincent Peale? James K. Van Fleet? John C. Maxwell? Question for Quote Investigator: Did country music star Willie Nelson say something about replacing negative thoughts with positive ones to achieve positive results? Reply from Quote Investigator: In 2006 Willie Nelson with Turk Pipkin published “The Tao of Willie: A Guide …
Quote Origin: To Be Happy at Home Is the Ultimate Result of All Ambition
Samuel Johnson? C. S. Lewis? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The famous English lexicographer Samuel Johnson apparently extolled domestic bliss. Did he write or say something like the following? The chief aim of all human endeavors is to be happy at home. Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1746 Samuel Johnson signed a contract to create …
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Quote Origin: History Is the Unfolding of Miscalculations
Barbara W. Tuchman? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The popular historian Barbara W. Tuchman crafted one or both of the following cautionary adages: Sometimes the final word is singular. Would you please help me unravel this mystery? Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1971 Tuchman published “Stilwell and the American Experience in China: 1911-45”. She discussed …
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