Tracing Quotations
Quotation: If anything can go wrong, fix it! (To hell with Murphy!) Creator: Peter H. Diamandis, founder and chairman of the X Prize Foundation; bestselling author; cofounder of Singularity University Context: In 2015 Diamandis published “Bold: How to Go Big, Create Wealth and Impact the World”. He described an episode that occurred shortly after he …
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Groucho Marx? John Stuart Mill? Joseph Addison? Thomas Stafford? Boyle Roche? Adam Neale? Samuel Goldwyn? Bill Nye? Question for Quote Investigator: Making sacrifices now for the people and environment of the future is difficult. This challenge has been encapsulated with a humorous remark. Here are two versions: Groucho Marx often receives credit for this quip, …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: What Has Posterity Ever Done for Us?”
Quotation: Always do what you are afraid to do. Popularizer: Ralph Waldo Emerson (He did not create the adage.) Context: In 1841 Emerson published the essay “Heroism”, and he recommended a simple maxim to readers for overcoming trepidation. Some fears are justified, and the guidance does not encourage foolish or self-destructive actions. Emerson disclaimed credit …
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Quotation: Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended. Creator: Vernor Vinge, prize-winning science fiction author; retired professor of computer science at San Diego State University Context: In 1993 NASA sponsored a symposium titled “Vision 21: Interdisciplinary Science and Engineering in the …
Quotation: Part of the inhumanity of the computer is that once it is competently programmed and working smoothly—it is completely honest. Creator: Isaac Asimov, bestselling author of science fiction and science books Context: The book “Change! Seventy-One Glimpses of the Future” contained a series of short speculative essays detailing Isaac Asimov’s visions of the future. …
Joseph Conrad? Edgar Ansel Mowrer? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Great attainments are normally thought to require superior mental acuity, but the brilliant novelist Joseph Conrad apparently contended that a “warm mental fog” was necessary. Would you please help me to find a citation? Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1915 Joseph Conrad published “Victory: An …
Franklin P. Adams? Franklin P. Jones? H. B. Meyers? Sylvia Strum Bremer? Loring Smith? Mike Connolly? Steven Pinker? Question for Quote Investigator: Public intellectual Steven Pinker recently published the bestselling book “Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress” which includes an entertaining quotation about nostalgia attributed to a prominent newspaper columnist: As …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Nothing Is More Responsible for the Good Old Days than a Bad Memory”
Marlon Brando? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: We are unable to anticipate the full consequences of the changes we make to ourselves. The following wistful and convoluted expression reflects this unease: I want to be who I was when I wanted to become who I am now. While listening to the radio I heard this …
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Clare Boothe Luce? Oscar Wilde? Walter Map? Marie Belloc Lowndes? James Agate? Leo Pavia? Walter Winchell? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: For centuries moral philosophers have propounded a conventional viewpoint about the rewards and punishments delivered by a deity. Here is an example from the “Summa Theologica” by Saint Thomas Aquinas who lived during the …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: No Good Deed Goes Unpunished”
Herbert Stein? Paul Krugman? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Economic trends are sometimes unsettling. For example, political commentators in countries that develop large foreign trade deficits often complain that the situation is untenable. A prominent economist responded to this fretting with a tautology. Here are four versions: Would you please help me to identify the …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: If Something Cannot Go On Forever It Will Stop”