Tracing Quotations
Gary Wright? Maurice Lutkin? Herb Caen? Chili Davis? Bumper Sticker? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Aging is an unavoidable part of the human experience, but it is not necessary to become staid and boring. Here is a pertinent saying: Growing old is mandatory. Growing up is optional. Would you please explore the provenance of this …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Growing Old Is Mandatory. Growing Up Is Optional”
Arthur D. Little Consulting Firm? JoAnne Yates? John H. Dessauer? Ian H. Gordon? Horace Becker? JoAnne Yates? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Predicting the demand for an innovative product is remarkably difficult. Apparently, the company that invented the photocopier hired a prestigious consulting firm to estimate future sales. The result was a statement like the …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: The World Market for Copiers Will Never Exceed 5,000 Units”
Douglas Adams? J. R. Williams? Bill Vaughan? Ron Burns? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: There is a family of comical sayings which highlight the paradoxical intelligence of fools and idiots: (1) Nothing is foolproof. Fools are entirely too ingenious.(2) They’re not idiot-proof because idiots are so damned inventive. English humorist Douglas Adams employed this quip, …
Henry Ward Beecher? William James? Upton Sinclair? Peggy Hopkins Joyce? Metellus Numidicus? Frederick Reynolds? John Dryden? Robert Bell? Della E. Stewart? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Maintaining relationships is difficult. One must accommodate the needs and desires of people who are sometimes confusing, annoying, and ungrateful. Yet, these complex human connections produce happiness and fulfillment. …
Continue reading “Saying Origin: You Can’t Live With Them, and You Can’t Live Without Them”
Benjamin Franklin? Benjamin Rush? Doctor Thibou? David Pitcairn? William Wadd? George G. Sigmond? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Charlatans who provide fraudulent medical advice and dubious nostrums have afflicted humankind for centuries. Misguided patients often boost these deceivers the most. Here are two versions of a pertinent saying: (1) There are no greater liars than …
Continue reading “Adage Origin: Quacks Are the Greatest Liars in the World, Except Their Patients”
Alice Walker? Rhona Raskins? William Martin? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: People have more power than they believe, but they must be willing to exercise it if they wish to achieve their goals. Here is a pertinent saying: The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any. This …
Thomas J. Watson Sr.? Thomas J. Watson Jr.? Howard H. Aiken? Harold Bergstein? J. Presper Eckert? John Mauchly? Chris Morgan? David Langford? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Collections of boneheaded predictions are popular with people who enjoy laughter combined with commiseration or superiority. Computers were extraordinarily expensive in the 1950s. First-generation machines used vacuum tubes …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: I Think There Is a World Market for About Five Computers”
Ernest Hemingway? Lionel Trilling? Ladislaus Boros? Larry Williams? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: U.S. novelist Ernest Hemingway has been credited with the following fatalistic remark: All true stories end in death. I have been unable to find this precise statement in Hemingway’s oeuvre. Apparently, he employed a different phrasing. Would you please help me find …
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Dizzy Dean? Muhammad Ali? Sonny Liston? Reggie Jackson? Babe Ruth? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Unfounded boasts are criticized, but an individual who sets and accomplishes an audacious goal can win praise. Here are three versions of a pertinent saying: (1) It ain’t bragging if you can do it.(2) It ain’t bragging when you can …
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Emily Dickinson? Thomas Wentworth Higginson? Mabel Loomis Todd? M. Lincoln Schuster? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A prominent literary figure was asked about her life experiences, and she responded emphatically: I find ecstasy in living; the mere sense of living is joy enough. This remark has been attributed to nineteenth-century poet Emily Dickinson. Some sources …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: I Find Ecstasy in Living; the Mere Sense of Living Is Joy Enough”