Margaret Mead? Donald Keys? Norman Vincent Peale? Patrick E. Haggerty? R. H. Edwin Espy? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: A popular energizing statement about small groups changing the world is usually attributed to the influential cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead. Yet, I have been unable to find a solid citation. Would you please help? Quote Investigator: Researchers …
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If You Invent a Breakthrough in Artificial Intelligence So Machines Can Learn, That Is Worth 10 Microsofts
Bill Gates? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: I saw an advertisement on the “USA Today” website that claimed Bill Gates once spoke about a technology that was ripe for invention and would be worth 10 Microsofts. The ad did not identify the technology. Did Bill Gates really make a remark of this type? Quote Investigator: In …
It Is Not Real Work Unless You Would Rather Be Doing Something Else
James Matthew Barrie? Chub De Wolfe? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: When I am absorbed in performing a difficult and fascinating task I do not feel like I am working. James Matthew Barrie, the well-known creator of “Peter Pan”, addressed this phenomenon: Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else. I have …
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You Better Not Compromise Yourself. It’s All You Got
Janis Joplin? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: Janis Joplin was an American rock star of the late 1960s and early 1970s who tragically died when she was only 27. Her vocalizations and emotional delivery were distinctive. Apparently she said: Don’t compromise yourself. You’re all you’ve got. Would you please help me to find a citation? Quote …
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I Don’t Get Ulcers. I Give Them
Harry Cohn? Samuel Goldwyn? David O. Selznick? Jimmie Fidler? Lyndon B. Johnson? Anonymous? Dear Quote investigator: According to a Hollywood legend a movie mogul expressed his unhappiness by angrily upbraiding underlings. Eventually, an assistant cautioned him that delivering repeated harangues can cause stomach ulcers. The magnate snarled: I don’t get ulcers. I give them. This …
Recipe To Create a Publisher: Take an Idiot Man from a Lunatic Asylum . . .
Mark Twain? Frank Nelson Doubleday? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: Mark Twain apparently held a very low opinion of book publishers. He suggested that publishers could be created via a multigenerational combination of individuals from lunatic asylums. Could you please help me find a citation for this sentiment? Quote Investigator: In 1897 Frank Nelson Doubleday and …
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Quote Origin: I Would Rather Be Governed By the First 2,000 People in the Telephone Directory than by the Harvard University Faculty
William F. Buckley Jr.? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: I am trying to verify a quotation from the conservative commentator and novelist William F. Buckley Jr. It goes something like this: I would rather be governed by the first 1,000 people listed in the phone book than by the faculty members from an Ivy League …
I Can Hire Half the Working Class To Fight the Other Half
Jay Gould? John Livingston? Delmore Schwartz? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: In the 19th-century a class of powerful industrialists were accused of unethical business practices, and the critical epithet “robber baron” appeared in journals and newspapers. The following incendiary remark has been attributed to the wealthy railroad magnate Jay Gould: I can hire one half of …
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In the Marriage Union the Independence of the Husband and Wife Will Be Equal, Their Dependence Mutual, and Their Obligations Reciprocal
Lucretia Mott? Louis K. Anspacher? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Historically, the marriage contract has been unequal. A different vision was presented by reformers in the nineteenth century: In the true marriage relation the independence of the husband and the wife is equal, their independence mutual, and their obligations reciprocal. Would you please explore the provenance …
A Specialist Knows More and More About Less and Less
William J. Mayo? Nicholas Murray Butler? William Warde Fowler? Patrick Geddes? Mabel M. Barker? Y. Srinivasa Rao? Arthur Bugs Baer? Robert E. Swain? Distinguished Scottish person? Question for Quote Investigator: The modern explosion of knowledge has led to an age of specialization with this concomitant quip: A specialist knows more and more about less and less. …
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