Tracing Quotations
Arturo Toscanini? Georges Clemenceau? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: According to legend the prominent conductor Arturo Toscanini expressed disrespect for the famous composer Richard Strauss during an incident in the 1930s. To understand this incident it is helpful to know that removing one’s hat was a gesture of respect in the European culture shared by the …
Continue reading “I Take My Hat Off To You as a Composer; I Put Back Ten Hats as a Man”
Alan Shepard? John Glenn? Wernher von Braun? Gus Grissom? Gordon Cooper? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: According to legend an astronaut was asked how he felt sitting in a space capsule while preparing for launch or travelling in orbit around the Earth. He replied with a trenchant comment about equipment and low-bid contracts. Would you please …
Cora L. V. Hatch? Thomas Sheridan? George Whyte-Melville? A. B. Kendig? Ella Wheeler Wilcox? Bertha Calloway? Jimmy Dean? Dolly Parton? Thomas S. Monson? Dear Quote Investigator: We are buffeted by events that are beyond our control, but we can still react constructively. A popular adage highlights this flexibility: We cannot direct the wind, but we …
Continue reading “We Cannot Direct the Wind, But We Can Adjust the Sails”
Edgar Allan Poe? Dinah Craik? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: The following hyperbolic proverb encouraging skepticism has been credited to the master of mystery and the macabre Edgar Allan Poe: Believe half of what you see and nothing of what you hear. Did Poe craft this saying? Quote Investigator: The short story “The System of Dr. …
Continue reading “Believe Nothing You Hear, and Only One Half That You See”
Isaac Asimov? Marvin Minsky? Paul Saffo? Edward Fredkin? Bruce Sterling? Dear Quote Investigator: Reportedly, a top researcher in artificial intelligence once said something like: Humans will be lucky if superintelligent robots treat them as pets. At some point a grim elaboration was appended: If humans are unlucky, they will be treated as food. Would you …
Continue reading “If We’re Lucky, Robots Might Decide To Keep Us as Pets”
Phyllis Diller? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: Newlyweds are sometimes given the following thoughtful relationship advice: Never go to bed while angry with your partner. The prominent comedian Phyllis Diller twisted this expression to yield a very funny line. Would you please help me to find a citation? Quote Investigator: The quip appeared in her 1966 …
Theodore Roosevelt? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: There is a spirited disagreement on Facebook about whether the following statement can be ascribed to Theodore Roosevelt: Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the President. Would you please help? Quote Investigator: Several U.S. presidential administrations have been greeted by critics …
Oscar Wilde? Sign in Leadville? Minister in Pooleville, Arkansas? Dear Quote Investigator: When Oscar Wilde was touring the United States he apparently saw a sign in a saloon requesting goodwill for the keyboardist. Here are three versions: Please do not shoot the piano player; he is doing his best. Please don’t shoot at the pianist; …
Continue reading “Please Do Not Shoot the Pianist. He Is Doing His Best”
Thomas Henry Huxley? George Bernard Shaw? Garrett Hardin? Caryl P. Haskins? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: An influential idea passes through three stages: 1) Begins as heresy 2) Turns into orthodoxy, 3) Ends up as superstition. I cannot remember who said this. Can you help? Quote Investigator: There are several different quotations that describe the reception …
J. B. S. Haldane? Louis Agassiz? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The British geneticist J. B. S. Haldane stated that interesting new truths were resisted, and acceptance required traversal through a series of four stages. During the first stage the new fact or theory was rejected as nonsense. Are you familiar with Haldane’s quotation on …