Tracing Quotations
Creator: John Ciardi, U.S. poet, translator, and critic Context: For many years Ciardi was an editor and columnist at “The Saturday Review”. He crafted several adages for the piece he published on September 24, 1966. Here is a sampling with emphasis added: What we need most to know about public servants is the identity of …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: There Is Nothing Wrong With Sobriety In Moderation”
Creator: Edward Bulwer-Lytton, popular and prolific English writer Context: Bulwer-Lytton wrote on this theme in 1848 within his novel “The Caxtons” which was serialized in “Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine”. A character in the story employed antimetabole cleverly when imparting guidance. Emphasis added to excerpt: My father no longer sought to curb my intellectual aspirings. He had …
Grace Hopper? Cardinal Barberini? Earl of Peterborough? David Hernandez? Helen Pajama? St. Benedict? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: People who are eager to initiate a task often cite the following guidance. Here are two versions: This notion has been credited to Grace Murray Hopper who was a U.S. Navy Rear Admiral and pioneering computer scientist. …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: It’s Easier To Ask Forgiveness Than To Get Permission”
Gautama Buddha? Buddhaghosa? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Feelings and actions driven by anger and resentment are self-destructive. This notion can be metaphorically illustrated by a red-hot coal which one grabs with the goal of striking another person. The poorly conceived plan causes one’s hand to suffer burns and pain. This figurative framework has been …
H. L. Mencken? Woody Allen? Walter Winchell? Alfred Lunt? Sarah Bernhardt? E. V. Durling? Jim Bishop? Colonel Stoopnagle? Frederick Chase Taylor? Leo Rosten? Humphrey Bogart? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: The following declaration of high praise has been applied to love making: The most fun you can have without laughing. Influential commentator H. L. Mencken …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: The Most Fun You Can Have Without Laughing”
Anne Lamott? Don Felt? John A. MacDougall? Gerald G. Jampolsky? Gina Berriault? Dorothy Bullitt? Lily Tomlin? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: It is not possible to change the past. Yet, enduring grievances are often emotionally rooted in an irrational hope that somehow past actions can be altered, and a disheartening event can be excised. Here …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Forgiveness Is Giving Up All Hope of a Better Past”
Elbert Hubbard? Thomas Carlyle? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Working for a living consumes enormous amounts of time and energy. If you wish to be happy in life then it is essential to try and obtain happiness from your work. Would you please determine who created an adage expressing this idea? Reply from Quote Investigator: …
Creator: Thomas Carlyle, Scottish philosopher, historian, and satirist Context: The book “Past and Present” by Carlyle contains the following passage which metaphorically contrasts a swamp and a meadow. Emphasis added: Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness. He has a work, a life-purpose; he has found it, and …
Adlai Stevenson? William Randolph Hearst? Chauncey Depew? Asa W. Tenney? Harold Wilson? Michael Douglas? Gordon Gekko? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Several politicians have attacked the prevarications of opponents by employing a quip from a family of humorous sayings. Here are two examples: A statement of this type has been credited to U.S. Senator and …
Creator: Emily Dickinson, prominent U.S. poet Context: The quotation occurred within a letter from Dickinson dated 1874 that appeared in a collection of missives published posthumously in 1894. The letter was sent to a cousin who was not named. Emphasis added to this excerpt: Affection is like bread, unnoticed till we starve, and then we …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: We Turn Not Older With Years, But Newer Every Day”