Tracing Quotations
Henri Matisse? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The innovative French artist Henri Matisse reportedly wrote: There are always flowers for those who want to see them. This statement appears on countless pictures of floral arrangements, but I have been unable to find the source, and I am beginning to question its authenticity. Would you please …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: There Are Always Flowers for Those Who Want To See Them”
Groucho Marx? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: Reportedly, Groucho Marx once described his philosophy of life. He stated that each day he had the power to choose to be happy or unhappy, and he would select happiness. Are you familiar with his statement on this topic? Would you please help me to find a citation? Quote …
Continue reading “I Have Just One Day, Today, and I’m Going To Be Happy In It”
Brant Parker? Johnny Hart? L. Frank Baum? Walt Kelly? Allan Sherman? Mel Brooks? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: I vaguely recall seeing a comic strip with a clever joke based on two different senses of the word “revolting”. An advisor warned a monarch about an uprising, and he replied acerbically: Advisor: The peasants are revolting. Monarch: …
Continue reading ““The Peasants Are Revolting” “You Can Say That Again””
William Butler Yeats? William B. Sprague? Benjamin Franklin? Richard Sharp? Charles Lamb? Charles Caleb Colton? Oliver Cromwell? Peleg Sprague? Ernest Hemingway? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: A popular proverb highlights the limited duration of an opportunity: Strike while the iron is hot. This metaphor has been astutely extended with advice for greater challenges: Make the iron …
Continue reading “Do Not Wait To Strike Till the Iron Is Hot; But Make It Hot By Striking”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: A fascinating fragment describes the tangible intrusion of a dream into the prosaic world: What if you slept And what if in your sleep you dreamed And what if in your dream you went to heaven And there plucked a strange and beautiful flower And what if when …
Continue reading “If He Found that Flower in His Hand When He Awoke — Ay! And What Then?”
William Butler Yeats? Leonard A. G. Strong? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: Too often classes in literature and the arts simply provide an encyclopedic recitation of previous opinions on a topic. The Nobel-Prize-winning Irish poet William Butler Yeats made a provocative remark about the desirability of getting rid of opinions. Would you please help me to …
Continue reading “Culture Does Not Consist in Acquiring Opinions, But in Getting Rid of Them”
Agatha Christie? Bill Vaughan? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Previously you examined a humorous statement from columnist Bill Vaughan about the electronic beasts that control so much of our lives: To err is human, to really foul things up requires a computer. I think that the famous mystery writer Agatha Christie said something very similar. Would …
Gloria Steinem? Joe King? Anonymous Black Feminist? Dear Quote Investigator: Being placed on a pedestal has a serious drawback according to the following astute metaphorical amplification: A pedestal is a prison, like any other small space. Would you please explore the provenance of this expression which is often attributed to the prominent feminist Gloria Steinem? …
Continue reading “A Pedestal Is as Much a Prison as Any Small Space”
Peter Drucker? Giga Information Group? Mark Fields? Eli Halliwell? Richard Clark? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Business leaders have found that the pre-existing culture of a company can thwart indispensable changes. A popular cautionary aphorism encapsulates this viewpoint. Here are two versions: Culture eats strategy for breakfast. Culture eats strategy for lunch. The famous management …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast”
Joseph Campbell? E. M. Forster? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Life often presents us with unexpected obstacles and challenges that require us to rethink our assumptions. The following pertinent statement has been attributed to the expert in mythology Joseph Campbell and popular English novelist E. M. Forster: We must let go of the life we have …