Tracing Quotations
Edgar Allan Poe? Samuel Johnson? William Johnson Neale? Dinah Craik? Apocryphal? Question for 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? Reply from Quote …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: 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 …
Jeff Hammerbacher? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: The famous poem “Howl” by Beat Generation poet Allen Ginsberg begins with a despairing cri de cÅ“ur: I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked… A very different mordant message was delivered by a Millennial who worried that his cohort was enmeshed in …
André Gide? Stuart Henry? McGeorge Bundy? Jacques de Biez? W. C. Brownell? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Many demand simple answers to tangled questions. Yet, some topics never yield straightforward black or white answers. The French Nobel prize winner André Gide supposedly made one of the following comments: The color of truth is grey. Gray is …
Arthur C. Clarke? Arthur Kantrowitz? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: Science fiction luminary Arthur C. Clarke described the audacious idea of building an elevator from the surface of the Earth straight up into space and beyond geostationary orbit in his 1979 novel “The Fountains of Paradise”. The megaproject would require extremely strong lightweight material, and some …
Continue reading “The Space Elevator Will Be Built About 50 Years After Everyone Stops Laughing”