Groucho Marx? Jack Oakie? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Encountering a black cat may bring you good luck or bad luck according to a complicated rule dictated by superstitious beliefs. The nature of the omen depends on whether the cat was traveling from left to right or the reverse. It also depends on whether the …
Author Archives: quoteresearch
Quote Origin: Nothing Can Stop a Person with the Right Mental Attitude from Achieving His or Her Goal
Thomas Jefferson? W. W. Ziege? Elbert Hubbard? Orison Swett Marden? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Several spiritual traditions assert that thoughts and beliefs can directly alter the world. Maintaining a positive outlook is highly desirable as indicated in the following proposition: Nothing can stop a person with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal; …
Quote Origin: Tired of Buttoning and Unbuttoning
Englishman? Frenchman? Lord Byron? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The quotidian activities of life induce lassitude and even despondency in some people. I have heard that an eighteenth century suicide note placed blame upon the following perpetual exercise: I weary of all this buttoning and unbuttoning. Is this tale genuine or apocryphal? Reply from Quote …
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Quote Origin: Books Aren’t Written, They’re Rewritten. Including Your Own
Michael Crichton? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Michael Crichton wrote numerous popular books and screenplays including: Jurassic Park, The Andromeda Strain, Westworld, Congo, Sphere, and The Lost World. Yet, each work entailed strenuous effort and required multiple drafts. Apparently, he offered the following advice to aspiring authors: Books aren’t written, they’re rewritten. Including your own. …
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Quote Origin: The Day the Child Realizes That All Adults Are Imperfect He Becomes an Adolescent
Alden Nowlan? John Robert Colombo? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Young children often view adults with awe. Even disobedient ones fear the deity-like powers of adults. Yet, over time the cracks in the façade of authority grow. Some author has stated: The day the child realizes that all adults are imperfect he becomes an adolescent. …
Quote Origin: We Must Be Willing To Change Our Belief System, Let the Past Slip Away, Expand Our Sense of Now, and Dissolve the Fear in Our Minds
William James? Gerald G. Jampolsky? Judy J. Johnson? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Recently, I came across a quotation attributed to the famous philosopher and psychologist William James about the difficult task of changing one’s belief system. He stated that one must let the past slip away, and one must dissolve fears. I do not …
Quote Origin: Your Margin Is My Opportunity
Jeff Bezos? Adam Lashinsky? Om Malik? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Business leaders often boast about the profit margins of their corporations, and some stock analysts praise companies which maximize that metric. Yet, a self-satisfied attitude attracts dangerous competitors. Jeff Bezos, the entrepreneurial founder of the Amazon juggernaut, has received credit for this trenchant remark: …
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Quote Origin: It Has Yet To Be Proved That Intelligence Has Real Survival Value
Arthur C. Clarke? Paraphrase? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The intelligence of humanity has enabled its absolute dominance of the biosphere; however, this trait has also generated frightening existential risks such as the danger of nuclear warfare. Science fiction luminary Arthur C. Clarke has received credit for the following remark: It has yet to be …
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Quote Origin: Some Day, You’ll Have a Telephone with a Screen and You’ll Be Able To Dial a Book
Fred Bass? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The host of a video on YouTube mentioned a remarkably prescient quotation from a New York book dealer in the 1960s who predicted that telephones would have screens, and people would read books on those screens selected from a large electronic library. Would you please explore this topic? …
Quote Origin: Pray for the Dead and Fight Like Hell for the Living
Mother Jones? Mary Harris Jones? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A rallying cry employed by protesters apparently began with labor activist Mary Harris Jones who is better known as Mother Jones: Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living. Would you please trace this expression? Reply from Quote Investigator: Mother Jones described …
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