Tracing Quotations
Edmund Burke? Sydney Smith? Bob Geldof? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Trying to solve an enormous problem can be demoralizing. Each action can only achieve a small amount of progress. The following saying is designed to help maintain morale: Nobody made a greater mistake than he who did nothing because he could do only a little. …
Continue reading “It Is the Greatest of All Mistakes, To Do Nothing Because You Can Only Do Little”
Mohandas Gandhi? Corita Kent? Nirmal Kumar Bose? David Guy Powers? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: The experience of hunger causes one’s motivations to focus on the need to acquire food. The following saying reflects this single-mindedness: God himself dare not appear to a hungry person except in the form of bread. This remark has been attributed …
Continue reading “To (The Hungry) God Can Only Appear as Bread and Butter”
A. A. Milne? Winnie the Pooh? Tom Phillips? Walter Kerr? Jack Valenti? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: The following poignant and memorable quotation about love and companionship appears on many websites: If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day, so I never have to live without …
Continue reading “May You All Live Forever. May I Live Forever Less A Day”
A. A. Milne? Lord Peter Wimsey? Dorothy L. Sayers? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: A. A. Milne is famous for authoring children’s books that bring to life anthropomorphic characters such as Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, and Piglet. Milne also composed essays aimed at adults, and he once criticized thinkers who recited quotations instead of engaging …
Edgar Bergen? Charlie McCarthy? Florian ZaBach? Walter Winchell? Earl Wilson? George Gobel? Sam Levenson? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: During my younger years when I was slow to perform a boring task my parents sometimes scolded me by proclaiming a cliché about hard work. Eventually, I came across a funny riposte: It might be true that …
Continue reading “Hard Work Never Killed Anyone But Some of Us Don’t Like To Take Chances”
Satchel Paige? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: The U.S. baseball pitcher Leroy Satchel Paige was proud of his inventive style and expert control. When accused of breaking rules he replied with a marvelous remark about throwing pitches that had not been seen in a generation. Would you please help me to find a citation? Quote Investigator: …
George M. Cohan? P. T. Barnum? Mae West? Elinor Glyn? Babe Ruth? Damon Runyon? James J. Johnston? Charley Murphy? Max Schmeling? Walter Winchell? Oscar Wilde? Samuel Johnson? Ed Sullivan? Dear Quote Investigator: A person once planned to write an article or book containing derogatory material about a celebrity. The unruffled response of the celebrity to …
Continue reading “Say Anything You Like About Me, But Spell My Name Right”
Jean Racine? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: The 17th-century French dramatist Jean Racine once presented a scenario in which a powerful emperor wished to split apart two lovers. The emperor ordered one lover to banish the other without revealing that the rejection was occurring under coercion. The emperor further stated that he would hide and carefully …
Continue reading “I Will Hear Those Glances That You Think Are Silent”
Don Marquis? Christopher Morley? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Crafting a bright witticism or a clever aphorism is a difficult task especially for a writer who is facing a tight deadline. One strategy is described as follows: Stroke a platitude until it purrs like an epigram. This remark has been ascribed to Don Marquis who was …
Continue reading “Paragraphing Consists of Stroking a Platitude Until It Purrs Like an Epigram”
Charlie Sheen? Don Simpson? Dashiell Hammett? Adela Rogers St. Johns? Clark Gable? Charles Fleming? Stephen J. Cannell? Susan Kelly? Germaine Greer? Ian Ayres? Joy Fielding? Jack Nicholson? Dear Quote Investigator: Attractive, wealthy, and famous people sometimes obtain intimate services via the underground commercial market. This behavior is surprising because these individuals should be able to …
Continue reading “I Don’t Pay Them To Come Over; I Pay Them To Go Away”