William Butler Yeats? William B. Sprague? Benjamin Franklin? Richard Sharp? Charles Lamb? Charles Caleb Colton? Oliver Cromwell? Peleg Sprague? Ernest Hemingway? Anonymous? Question for 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 …
Author Archives: quoteresearch
Quote Origin: If He Found that Flower in His Hand When He Awoke — Ay! And What Then?
Samuel Taylor Coleridge? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A fascinating fragment describes the tangible intrusion of a dream into the prosaic world: What if you sleptAnd what if in your sleep you dreamedAnd what if in your dream you went to heavenAnd there plucked a strange and beautiful flowerAnd what if when you awoke you …
Quote Origin: Culture Does Not Consist in Acquiring Opinions, But in Getting Rid of Them
William Butler Yeats? Leonard A. G. Strong? Apocryphal? Question for 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 …
Quote Origin: To Err Is Human, But a Human Error Is Nothing To What a Computer Can Do If It Tries
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. …
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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