Robert Haven Schauffler? Nantucket Sea Captain? Rita P.? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Whenever I am tempted to complain about a setback in my life I recollect a wry piece of advice. Here are two versions: Never tell people your troubles. Half of them don’t care and the other half will be glad it happened to …
Author Archives: quoteresearch
There Is Surely Nothing Quite So Useless as Doing with Great Efficiency What Should Not Be Done At All
Peter Drucker? Gore Vidal? Professor Giddings? Jesse H. Shera? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: I belong to an organization which is expending an inordinate effort perfecting the execution of a task that is peripheral to its mission. A famous management guru spoke about the pointlessness of efficiently performing a function that should not be done at …
Dictators Ride To and Fro Upon Tigers from Which They Dare Not Dismount
Winston Churchill? Harry Truman? Chinese Adage? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: Anyone who was sitting atop a tiger would have a difficult time dismounting safely. Apparently, this scenario has been employed metaphorically by the political leaders Winston Churchill and Harry Truman. Would you please explore this topic? Quote Investigator: In 1937 Winston Churchill delivered an address …
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Life is a Tragedy when Seen in Closeup, But a Comedy in Longshot
Charlie Chaplin? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: The cinema icon Charlie Chaplin depicted comic and tragic situations in his films, and he also experienced both in his personal life. One of his memorable quotations metaphorically employed the film director terms closeup and longshot to contrast tragedy and comedy. Would you help me to find a citation …
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Two Kinds of Fools: This Is Old, Therefore It Is Good. This Is New, Therefore It Is Better
William Ralph Inge? John Brunner? Bishop of Ripon? Anonymous? Quote Investigator: There are two different types of fools. One naively embraces and extolls everything that is old; the other credulously praises everything that is new. This insight has been ascribed to William Ralph Inge who was a professor at Cambridge and Dean of St Paul’s …
It’s Easy Enough, My Friend, to Dream of Utopian Worlds Afar…
Edgar Allan Poe? Ted Olson? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: There is a verse stating that only one person out of one-hundred is actively working toward making bold dreams come true. This notion has been ascribed to the horror master Edgar Allan Poe. Are you familiar with this verse? Would you please examine this topic? Quote …
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Life Is a Sexually Transmitted Terminal Disease
Margaret Atwood? Posy Simmonds? Guy Bellamy? Marilyn Duckworth? R. D. Laing? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: The following quotation may be morbid, but I still consider it cleverly humorous: Life is a sexually transmitted terminal disease. Would you please explore its provenance? Quote Investigator: Tracing this statement is difficult because it emerged from a family of …
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The Three Most Famous Names in History Are Jesus Christ, Sherlock Holmes, and Harry Houdini
George Bernard Shaw? Otto Penzler? James Thurber? Harold Ross? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: Reportedly, George Bernard Shaw once presented an idiosyncratic list of the three most famous individuals: Jesus Christ, Sherlock Holmes, and Harry Houdini. Did Shaw really put forward this triptych? Quote Investigator: The earliest evidence known to QI appeared in the 1976 biography …
Do Not Allow Idleness to Deceive You, for While You Give Him Today He Steals Tomorrow from You
H. Croccoquill? Alfred Crowquill? Alfred Henry Forrester? Dear Quote Investigator: I recently encountered an insightful quotation that begins: Don’t allow idleness to deceive you. . . Someone with the unusual name “H. Croccoquill” was credited, but I have been unable to learn anything about him or her. Is this ascription accurate? Quote Investigator: No. The …
Planet “Earth”: We Should Have Called It “Sea”
Arthur C. Clarke? Carleton Ray? Ann Henderson-Sellers? James E. Lovelock? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: The water covering our planet makes it look like a blue marble in pictures taken from outer space. Roughly three-quarters of the surface is enveloped in H₂O in liquid or frozen form. The science fiction luminary Arthur C. Clarke suggested that …
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