Bill Joy? George Gilder? Bill Gates? Dan Gillmor? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Bill Joy is a top computer scientist who helped to develop the UNIX operating system and co-founded Sun Microsystems. He formulated an important insight now called “Joy’s Law” about the distribution of expertise in organizations. Here are three versions: Would you please …
Author Archives: quoteresearch
Quote Origin: If I Cannot Swear in Heaven I Shall Not Stay There
Mark Twain? Albert Bigelow Paine? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: There are a set of statements attributed to the famous humorist Mark Twain about allowable behaviors in heaven: Did Twain really make any of these remarks? Reply from Quote Investigator: After Mark Twain’s death in 1910 Albert Bigelow Paine who was his friend became his …
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Quote Origin: Software Is Eating the World
Marc Andreessen? Ben Horowitz? Question for Quote Investigator: The companies Uber and Lyft are worth billions of dollars and are juggernauts in the transportation sector. Yet, neither company owns a fleet of vehicles. The multibillion dollar company Airbnb has revolutionized the hospitality sector, yet it owns no hotels or motels. These companies control pivotal software …
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Quote Origin: The Doodle Is the Brooding of the Hand
Saul Steinberg? Harold Rosenberg? Robert Motherwell? Question for Quote Investigator: A cartoonist once spoke eloquently about the product of absentminded scribbling. Here are three versions: Would you please explore the provenance of this expression? Reply from Quote Investigator: The leading illustrator and cartoonist Saul Steinberg was often featured in the pages of “The New Yorker”. …
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Dialogue Origin: “What Made You a Star?” “I Started Out in a Gaseous State, and Then I Cooled”
Johnny Carson? Kenneth Tynan? David Letterman? Ed McMahon? Question for Quote Investigator: A prominent show business personality was once asked how he or she became a star. The reply was a very funny absurdist remark about astrophysical star formation. Do you know who made this response? Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1968 English theatre critic …
Quote Origin: Everywhere I Go I’m Asked If I Think Universities Stifle Writers. I Think They Don’t Stifle Enough of Them
Flannery O’Connor? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Flannery O’Connor, the novelist and famous crafter of short stories, was once asked whether she believed that college courses discouraged or stifled budding writers. She gave an answer I found found acerbically entertaining. Would you please help me to find a citation? Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1960 …
Quote Origin: This Life’s Hard, But It’s Harder If You’re Stupid
John Wayne? Redd Foxx? Robert Mitchum? George V. Higgins? Steven Keats? Eddie Coyle? Jackie Brown? Question for Quote Investigator: When someone performs a witless or laughably irritating act there is a barbed response that reflects exasperation. Here are three versions: These words have been attributed to the famous actor John Wayne, the prominent comedian Redd …
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Dialogue Origin: “But You Did That in Thirty Seconds.” “No, It Has Taken Me Forty Years To Do That.”
Pablo Picasso? Mark H. McCormack? James McNeill Whistler? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A rapidly created artwork may still be quite valuable. An anecdote illustrating this point features Pablo Picasso and a pestering art lover. Would you please explore whether this tale is authentic or apocryphal? Reply from Quote Investigator: The earliest instance of the …
Dialogue Origin: “The Labour of Two Days, Is That for Which You Ask Two Hundred Guineas!” “No; I Ask It for the Knowledge of a Lifetime.”
James McNeill Whistler? Pablo Picasso? John Ruskin? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: According to legend a famous painter once created a work of art in a very rapid and seemingly slipshod fashion. Yet the price assigned to the piece was exorbitant. The artist was asked why the price of the painting was so large when …
Quote Origin: The More I Know About People, the Better I Like Dogs
Mark Twain? Madame de Sévigné? Madame Roland? Alphonse de Lamartine? Alphonse Toussenel? Louise de la Rameé? Alfred D’Orsay? Thomas Carlyle? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: A popular expression combines disappointment with humanity together with praise for canines. Here are four versions: These words have been attributed to Mark Twain and Alphonse Toussenel. Would you please …
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