Arthur Conan Doyle? Sherlock Holmes? Diane Ackerman? Jeremy Withers? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes, was a bicycle enthusiast. He suggested that taking a spin down the road on a bicycle would dispel feelings of discouragement and unhappiness. I do not know the precise phrasing Conan Doyle used. …
Search results for: Hope
Quote Origin: Important Things in the World Have Been Accomplished by People Who Have Kept On Trying When There Seemed To Be No Hope At All
Dale Carnegie? Lee de Forest? Dorothy Carnegie? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Dale Carnegie was a popular author of self-improvement books. He once argued against premature discouragement by asserting that most remarkable achievements had been attained by people who continued to try even when no hope seemed possible. Would you please help me to find …
Quote Origin: The Rain Will Stop; The Night Will End; The Hurt Will Fade. Hope Is Never So Lost That It Can’t Be Found
Ernest Hemingway? Mandy Hale? The Single Woman? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: I recently encountered a quotation using evocative language about the rain stopping and the night ending. The quotation emphasized that one should feel hopeful. Oddly, the famous author Ernest Hemingway received credit for the remark, but I do not think it sounds anything …
Quote Origin: Plenty of Hope; Infinite Hope; Just Not for Us
Franz Kafka? Max Brod? Jonathan Franzen? Josef Paul Hodin? Georg Lukács? Harold Bloom? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: In 2019 acclaimed author Jonathan Franzen wrote an essay in “The New Yorker” that began with the following remark of despair attributed to the influential Prague-born writer Franz Kafka. There is infinite hope; only not for us. …
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Quote Origin: There Is a Hopeful Symbolism in the Fact That Flags Will Not Wave in a Vacuum
Arthur C. Clarke? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A famous science fiction (SF) author was fearful that nationalistic and jingoistic impulses were driving conflict on Earth and endangering the future of humankind. The author hoped that space exploration would redirect and lessen those passions. A flag flapping in the breeze is a traditional signifier of …
Quote Origin: Hope Is the Feeling We Have That the Feeling We Have Is Not Permanent
Mignon McLaughlin? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Feeling discouraged is a natural reaction to the state of the world sometimes. Currently, there is a pandemic curtailing social and economic activity almost everywhere. Yet, these pessimistic feelings will not last forever. My favorite witty person, Mignon McLaughlin, once presented a clever definition of “hope” that is …
Quote Origin: The Very Existence of Libraries Affords the Best Evidence That We May Yet Have Hope for the Future of Man
T. S. Eliot? Jayne Ann Krentz? Alan Bennett? Apocryphal? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: The Nobel laureate T. S. Eliot apparently stated that the establishment of libraries provided compelling evidence that humanity had a future. Would you please help me to find a citation? Reply from Quote Investigator: The renowned poet T. S. Eliot died …
Quote Origin: There Are Hopes the Bloom of Whose Beauty Would Be Spoiled by the Trammels of Description
Charles Dickens? Ellen Pickering? Anonymous? Question for 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 …
Quote Origin: When Audiences Come To See Authors Lecture, It Is Largely in the Hope That We’ll Be Funnier To Look at Than To Read
Sinclair Lewis? Max Herzberg? Bennett Cerf? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The American writer, social activist, and noble laureate Sinclair Lewis wondered why big audiences came to hear lectures given by authors. He humorously suggested that attendees might be hoping to see funny looking authors. Is Lewis’s self-deprecating observation genuine? Reply from Quote Investigator: In …
Quote Origin: Forgiveness Is Giving Up All Hope of a Better Past
Anne Lamott? Don Felt? John A. MacDougall? Gerald G. Jampolsky? Gina Berriault? Dorothy Bullitt? Lily Tomlin? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: It is not possible to change the past. Yet, enduring grievances are often emotionally rooted in an irrational hope that somehow past actions can be altered, and a disheartening event can be excised. Here …
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