Tracing Quotations
Anatole France? George Pólya? George B. Hartzog Jr.? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: Educators are tempted to cover numerous topics and present a farrago of facts, but this superfluity discourages many learners. A small number of well-chosen topics and pertinent examples can activate curiosity. The Nobel-Prize winner Anatole France has been credited with the following astute …
Continue reading “Awaken People’s Curiosity. It Is Enough To Open Minds; Do Not Overload Them”
Aristotle? Robert T. Oliver? John Patrick Ryan? Loren Reid? Gerald M. Phillips? Julia T. Wood? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: The most effective way to persuade other people is to downplay your own motivations and appeal to their motivations. The following adage expresses this notion: The fool tells me his reasons; the wise man persuades me …
Helen Keller? Alexander Graham Bell? Johann P. F. Richter? Miguel de Cervantes? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: A venerable adage emphasizes the desirability of retaining a positive outlook and flexibility. Plans always encounter difficulties, and a successful person must be able to adapt. Here are two instances of a proverb that employs doorways figuratively: When one …
Wendell Phillips? George W. Phillips? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: Wendell Phillips was a prominent orator and abolitionist who lived in the 1800s. He believed that suffering a defeat should not be dreaded because it provided a form of education. Also, it would often lead to something better. Would you please help me to find a …
Mohandas Gandhi? Dorothy Uris? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Archaeologists and historians have expended enormous efforts in tracing the origins of civilization. A trenchant humorist has said that scholars should not be trying to ascertain where civilization began; instead, they should be trying to guess when it will begin. Did Mahatma Gandhi say something like this? …
Continue reading “The Question Is Not Where Civilization Began, But When Will It”
Arthur C. Clarke? Isaac Asimov? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: The famous science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke believed that proclamations of impossibility were too readily dispensed by blinkered elderly scientists. Would you please help me to find a citation for Clarke’s First Law? Quote Investigator: In 1962 Arthur C. Clarke published a forward-looking book filled …
Ernest Rutherford? Robert Millikan? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: The experimental physicist Ernest Rutherford won a Nobel Prize for his pioneering work on radiation. Later his research group at the Cavendish Laboratory of the University of Cambridge split the nucleus of an atom in a controlled manner. Yet, he doubted that atomic physics would produce a …
J. D. Salinger? Wilhelm Stekel? Otto Ludwig? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: “The Catcher in the Rye” by J. D. Salinger is a popular work embodying adolescent angst and confusion. During one scene a teacher of the protagonist Holden Caulfield gives him a remarkable quotation ascribed to a psychoanalyst named Wilhelm Stekel. Has anyone attempted to …
Voltaire? Bernard Le Bovier de Fontenelle? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Coffee enthusiasts enjoy sharing an anecdote about Voltaire who savored the aromatic beverage throughout his life. The famous philosopher’s physician warned him that coffee was a slow poison. He replied, “Yes, it is a remarkably slow poison. I have been drinking it every day for …
Charles Dickens? Ellen Pickering? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: The famous English writer Charles Dickens has received credit for a high-flown expression that compares a person’s hopes to a beautiful bloom that should not be spoiled. I have been unable to find this saying in any of his novels, and I have begun to doubt that …