Agatha Christie? Bill Vaughan? Anonymous? Question for 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. …
Author Archives: quoteresearch
Quote Origin: A Pedestal Is as Much a Prison as Any Small Space
Gloria Steinem? Joe King? Anonymous Black Feminist? Question for 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 …
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Quote Origin: Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast
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 guru …
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Quote Origin: We Must Be Willing To Get Rid of the Life We’ve Planned, So As To Have the Life That Is Waiting for Us
Joseph Campbell? E. M. Forster? Anonymous? Question for 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 …
Quote Origin: The Only Thing More Painful Than Learning from Experience Is Not Learning from Experience
Archibald MacLeish? Laurence J. Peter? Earl Wilson? Eleanor Hoyt? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: The American poet Archibald MacLeish apparently said that learning from experience was painful, but the alternative of not learning was worse. A similar remark has been ascribed to quotation collector Laurence J. Peter. Would you please examine this topic? Reply from …
Quote Origin: Never Think That You’re Not Good Enough
Anthony Trollope? Isaac Asimov? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Recently, I saw a tweet ascribing the following words to the popular Victorian era English novelist Anthony Trollope: Above all else, never think you’re not good enough. Curiously, when I searched for a citation I found that it was also ascribed to the science fiction master …
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Quote Origin: Creativity Is Contagious. Pass It On
Albert Einstein? Bernice Bede Osol? Eugene Raudsepp? François de La Rochefoucauld? Dale Carnegie? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The following words are often credited to the scientific genius Albert Einstein: Creativity is contagious. Pass it on. I cannot find a good citation. What do you think? Reply from Quote Investigator: There is no substantive evidence …
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Quote Origin: We Have Done So Much with So Little for So Long, that Now We Can Do Anything with Nothing
U.S. Airforce? U.S. Navy? Marines? U.S. Coastguard? Hugh S. Johnson? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: During a retirement party I heard the following humorous encomium: She did so much, with so little, for so long that she is now able to do everything with nothing. Would you please explore the history of this statement? Reply …
Quote Origin: People Think They Are Thinking When They Are Merely Rearranging Their Prejudices
Edward R. Murrow? Knute Rockne? William James? William Fitzjames Oldham? Josh Billings? George Craig Stewart? Luther Burbank? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Changing deeply help opinions is very difficult. A brilliant and forceful quotation expresses this idea: Many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices. These words have been attributed …
Quote Origin: Man Will Atrophy All His Limbs But the Push-Button Finger
Frank Lloyd Wright? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A simple finger touch can make a phone call, play music, summon a taxi, obtain a weather forecast, pay a bill, and perform countless other tasks via apps. The famous architect Frank Lloyd Wright feared that in the future all of our body parts would atrophy except …
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