William Ralph Inge? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: I once heard the humorous claim that recorded history may be divided into two parts: Would you please explore the provenance of this observation? Reply from Quote Investigator: William Ralph Inge was Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral in London and a professor of divinity at Cambridge. Dean …
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Quote Origin: Politicians Are Like Diapers. They Should Be Changed Regularly
Mark Twain? Dick Nolan? Ad Schuster? Betty Carpenter? Bumper Sticker? Jake Ford? Bill Quraishi? John Wallner? Robin Williams? Barry Levinson? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: The number of sayings spuriously ascribed to Mark Twain seems to grow every year. Here are two versions of a remark credited to the famous son of Hannibal, Missouri: The …
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Quote Origin: Eat Whatever You Like and Let Them Fight It Out Inside
Mark Twain? Lyman Beecher Stowe? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The following eccentric dietary advice has been attributed to the famous humorist Mark Twain: Part of the secret of success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside. I question whether Twain said this because no one …
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Quote Origin: I Have Made It a Rule Never To Smoke More Than One Cigar at a Time
Mark Twain? Elbert Hubbard? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Mark Twain followed two thoughtful guidelines regarding smoking: Would you please determine when he enunciated these rules? Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1905 Mark Twain celebrated his seventieth birthday at the popular New York restaurant Delmonico’s. The participants delivered numerous speeches and poems lauding Twain as …
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Quote Origin: Real Artists Ship
Steve Jobs? Andy Hertzfeld? Nicholas Callaway? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Developing and releasing a complicated product like a personal computer is an arduous task. Prominent business executive Steve Jobs employed the following adage to motivate the group designing the innovative Macintosh computer: Real Artists Ship Would you please explore this saying? Reply from Quote …
Quote Origin: It Is Not Quite the Same God to Which One Returns
Samuel Johnson? Robert Gordis? Francis Bacon? Morris Raphael Cohen? Mordecai M. Kaplan? Benjamin Jowett? Question for Quote Investigator: While I was a student a few decades ago I came across a remarkable metaphysical expression that was similar to the following: The search for knowledge will lead a person away from God, and then back toward …
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Quote Origin: If We Treat People as If They Were What They Ought To Be, We Help Them Become What They Are Capable of Becoming
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe? Thomas Carlyle? Mary Shelley? Percy Bysshe Shelley? Thomas S. Monson? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: There is a family of sayings ascribed to the prominent German literary figure Goethe. Here are two instances in the family: If you treat people as they are, they will become worse. If you treat them …
Quote Origin: I Have Come to a Frightening Conclusion. I Am the Decisive Element in the Classroom
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe? Haim G. Ginott? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The major German literary figure Goethe has received credit for a passage that begins: I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. I have not found any solid ascriptions …
Dialogue Origin: “When Is a Mouse If It Spins?” “Because the Higher It Gets the Fewer”
Robert Overton? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: The question and answer of the following exasperating riddle appear to be nonsensical: Question: Why is a mouse when it spins?Answer: The higher, the fewer. Would you please examine the provenance of this conundrum? Reply from Quote Investigator: Robert Overton published “Ten Minutes: Holiday Yarns and Recitations” as …
Quote Origin: Who Cares Who Killed Roger Ackroyd?
Edmund Wilson? Agatha Christie? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The following acerbic remark has been used to dismiss the entire mystery genre as trivial and uninteresting: Who cares who killed Roger Ackroyd? Would you please help me to find a citation for this remark? Reply from Quote Investigator: This interrogative statement is the title of …
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