Tracing Quotations
Gore Vidal? Andy Warhol? Peter Conrad? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A U.S. intellectual once offered the following remarkably harsh assessment of a famous pop-artist: He is the only genius with an IQ of 60. Reportedly, the verbal sharpshooter was Gore Vidal, and the visual artist was Andy Warhol. The precise number specified for the …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: He Is the Only Genius with an IQ of 85”
Nicholas Negroponte? M. G. Siegler? William Deresiewicz? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Predicting the technological future is extremely difficult. More than a decade ago Nicholas Negroponte, the head of the MIT Media Lab, predicted that books would not exist in about five years. He meant that the popularity of paper books would decline, and ebooks …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Books Will Not Exist in About Five Years”
Elbert Hubbard? Mary Sargent Hopkins? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Vacations with full itineraries can be exciting and exhausting. Here are two versions of a pertinent quip: (1) One never needs a vacation so much as the day after returning from one.(2) The man who most needs a vacation is the man who has just …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: No One Needs a Vacation So Much as the Person Who Has Just Had One”
Oscar Wilde? Gian Vincenzo Gravina? John D. MacDonald? Roger Ebert? Paul Gibson? Marcel Proust? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: A clever person constructed the following definition: A bore is a person who deprives you of solitude without providing you with company. This remark has been attributed to Irish wit Oscar Wilde, Italian man of letters …
Francis Petrarch? Plutarch? Henry Theodore Tuckerman? Frederick Saunders? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The following ornate passage about love has been attributed to Francis Petrarch, a prominent poet of the Italian Renaissance: Love is the crowning grace of humanity, the holiest right of the soul, the golden link which binds us to duty and truth. …
Jesse Carr? Margaret Thatcher? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Positive self-descriptions are sometimes inaccurate. Here are three versions of a saying which illustrates this insight: (1) Power is like being a lady—if you have to tell them you are, you ain’t. (2) Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people …
Ginger Rogers? Ann Richards? Bob Thaves? Ronald Reagan? Faith Whittlesey? Liz Carpenter? Question for Quote Investigator: The U.S. entertainer Fred Astaire won high praise as a magnificent dancer. Astaire’s partner Ginger Rogers also achieved acclaim, but she did not achieve the same level of celebrity. A humorous feminist line compares the capabilities of the two: …
A. H. Weiler? Earl Wilson? Mitch Miller? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Grandiose managers brag of the monumental tasks they can accomplish. This unrealistic attitude is reflected in a quip: Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn’t have to do it himself. Newspaper editor A. H. Weiler has received credit for this joke, but …
John Stuart Mill? Henry George? Herbert Vincent Mills? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Numerous labor-saving machines were designed and built in the nineteenth century, but a prominent political economist was unimpressed. He doubted whether these inventions had lessened the toil of anyone by even a single day. This notion has been attributed to John Stuart …
John Stuart Mill? Henry George? H. L. Mencken? C. Palfrey? J. E. Jennings? Adam Coaldigger? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Recent progress in artificial intelligence and robotics has led some to believe that work hours will shrink and leisure will grow. However, history suggests a different possibility. Brilliant inventors have created a series of remarkable …
Continue reading “Saying Origin: Labor-Saving Devices Don’t Save Labor. They Increase It”