Tracing Quotations
Abraham Lincoln? William De Britaine? Roger L’Estrange? Italian Proverb? Benjamin Franklin? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Evaluating complex legal issues requires expertise. Abraham Lincoln reportedly employed the following adage. Here are two versions: Would you please explore this topic? Reply from Quote Investigator: The earliest partial match known to QI appeared in the 1682 book …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: A Man Who Is His Own Lawyer Has a Fool for a Client”
Roger L’Estrange? William Grant? John Bristed? William J. Flagg? William Osler? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: A person with a serious malady should be very cautious about treating himself or herself. This holds true even if the person is a physician. Here are some versions of a pertinent adage: Would you please explore the provenance …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: He Who Acts as His Own Doctor Has a Fool for a Patient”
Warren Buffett? Bruce Lee? Cindy Flores? Sylvester McNutt III? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: A paragraph of advice about maintaining equanimity is popular on social media. Here is the first sentence: You will continue to suffer if you have an emotional reaction to everything that is said to you. These words have been attributed to …
Groucho Marx? Fred Waring? Ed Gardner? Goodman Ace? Jane Ace? Fred Allen? Ernie Kovacs? Deane Binder? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: The number of scripted television shows has grown dramatically in recent years and so have the plaudits. Yet, from its earliest days the medium has always attracted scorn. Here are three examples of lacerating …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Television Is Called a Medium Because It’s Never Well Done”
Thomas Jefferson? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A large number of the quotations attributed to Thomas Jefferson are apocryphal; hence, I have learned to be cautious. Do you know whether the following remark is from the pen of Jefferson? Honesty is the first chapter of the book wisdom. Any help would be appreciated. Reply from …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Honesty Is the 1st Chapter in the Book of Wisdom”
James Thurber? Jane Austen? Charles Caleb Colton? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Many are familiar with the following adage which encourages aggregation: There is safety in numbers. Yet, I recall reading a short acerbic tale that presented an inverted moral of this type: There is no safety in numbers, or anything else. Would you please …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: There Is No Safety In Numbers, Or In Anything Else”
William Osler? Caleb Hillier Parry? Henry George Plimmer? Woods Hutchinson? Walter Moxon? Albert Abrams? Hippocrates? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: In medicine it is crucial to identify the disease that afflicts the patient, but that is only one part of the full assessment. Determining the best treatment requires a careful examination of the history and …
Alfred Hitchcock? George Bernard Shaw? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Enthusiastic critics treat films as elevated objects of art, but the famous director Alfred Hitchcock once insightfully remarked on the pragmatic limitations placed on commercial movies by human biology. He stated that the proper length of a film was dependent on the endurance of the …
David Rowland? Dale Dauten? Art Weinstein? William C. Johnson? Sun Microsystems? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Attempting something new and innovative is crucial to success in many fields, but triumph is not guaranteed. An unfamiliar or unusual strategy may fail. Designers have advanced the following adage: Different isn’t always better, but better is always different. …
Zora Neale Hurston? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Futurists use the horizon metaphorically to help explain the limits of prediction. As one approaches the horizon, more of the world becomes visible, but there are always vast regions that remain invisible because they are beyond the horizon. I think the Harlem Renaissance author Zora Neale Hurston …