Tracing Quotations
Mark Twain? Bill Nye? Ambrose Bierce? Punch Magazine? Dear Quote Investigator: Richard Wagner was a prominent German composer who created the landmark four-opera cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen (The Ring of the Nibelung). A comically incongruous remark about his efforts has been attributed to two famous American humorists Mark Twain and Bill Nye: Wagner’s music …
Continue reading “Wagner’s Music Is Really Much Better Than It Sounds”
Jonathan Swift? Samuel Taylor Coleridge? Alexander Pope? Théophile de Viau? Matthew Prior? Pierre de Ronsard? Scévole de Sainte-Marthe? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: According to legend a famous literary figure was accosted by a philistine who exclaimed that all poets were fools. The adroit spontaneous response provided a humorous comeuppance: Sir, I admit your general rule, …
Continue reading “You Yourself May Serve To Show It, That Every Fool Is Not a Poet”
Tom Petty? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: There is a piece of controversial advice aimed at college students that I have long suspected was created by an undergraduate to sabotage his fellow students. It contains the suggestion: You have four years to be irresponsible here, relax. Work is for people with jobs. Usually the words are …
Continue reading “You Have Four Years To Be Irresponsible Here. Relax”
Arthur Schopenhauer? Charles Lyell? Louis Agassiz? J. Marion Sims? Alexander von Humboldt? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: True statements and ideas are often not recognized initially; instead, the process of acceptance is long and circuitous. One popular adage highlights three stages for the recognition of truth: The prominent German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer is usually credited …
Ernest Hemingway? Leonard Cohen? Ralph Waldo Emerson? Benjamin Blood? Rumi? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: It is impossible to avoid all pain and suffering during a lifetime, but I believe that our setbacks have a larger meaning and purpose. The famous author Ernest Hemingway reportedly said the following: We are all broken. That’s how the …
Continue reading “We Are All Broken. That’s How the Light Gets In”
Hermann Oberth? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: Engineer Hermann Oberth was an extraordinary pioneer in the fields of rocketry and astronautics. Provocatively, he conjectured that Earth was being visited by spaceships from another solar system. I saw a fascinating quotation about the development of advanced technology that was attributed to him in a book about UFOs: …
Yogi Berra? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: An entertaining tale states that baseball great Yogi Berra was once honored at a ceremony extolling his athletic skills. He knew of his obligation to give a speech after the receipt of the accolades and gifts, and his prepared remarks included a statement thanking everyone for making the event …
Continue reading “I Thank All of You for Making This Night Necessary”
Ralph Waldo Emerson? Sam Elliott? Ethan Coen? Joel Coen? Bertrand W. Sinclair? Carl O. Sauer? Roger Penske? Jim Croce? Preacher Roe? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: There is a family of ursine sayings about the topsy-turvy vicissitudes of life: 1) Sometimes you eat the bear, and sometimes the bear eats you. 2) Sometimes you hunt the …
Continue reading “Sometimes You Eat the Bear, and Sometimes the Bear Eats You”
Tallulah Bankhead? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: The movie star Tallulah Bankhead apparently grew tired of seeing misquotations, and she proclaimed that any quotation ascribed to her was inaccurate: …except if it is funny, in which case I definitely said it. I thought you might enjoy this topic. What do you think? Quote Investigator: In July …
Continue reading “Whatever You Have Read That I Said Is Almost Certainly Untrue, Except . . .”
P. G. Wodehouse? John Gardner? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: The popular and prolific humorist P. G. Wodehouse created indelible characters such as Bertie Wooster and Reginald Jeeves. Wodehouse apparently claimed that he was a remarkably precocious author: I know I was writing stories when I was five. I haven’t been able to find a solid …
Continue reading “I Know I Was Writing Stories When I Was Five”