Author Archives: quoteresearch

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. …

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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 …

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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? …

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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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Quote Origin: Once You Have Tasted Flight You Will Walk the Earth With Your Eyes Turned Skyward

Leonardo da Vinci? John H. Secondari? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The famous Renaissance figure Leonardo da Vinci has been given credit for a remark about the experience of flight: Once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. How could Leonardo know something like this? I am skeptical …

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Dialogue Origin: “What’s Your Opinion of Civilization?” “It’s a Good Idea. Somebody Ought To Start It”

George Bernard Shaw? Albert Schweitzer? Life Magazine? Mohandas Gandhi? Ferdinand Pecora? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Some thinkers believe that humanity has not yet achieved an advanced society worthy of the name “civilization”. This notion has been expressed with the following dialog: “What’s your idea of civilization?” “It’s a good idea. Somebody ought to start …

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Quote Origin: People Tend To Overestimate What Can Be Done In One Year And To Underestimate What Can Be Done In Five Or Ten Years

Bill Gates? Arthur C. Clarke? J. C. R. Licklider? Roy Amara? Alfred Mayo? George H. Heilmeier? Manfred Kochen? Raymond Kurzweil? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Predicting the technological future of mankind is enormously difficult. One recurring flaw in such projections has been identified. Here are three versions: We tend to overestimate the effect of a …

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