Tracing Quotations
John Dennis? Alexander Pope? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: To steal someone’s thunder means to take an idea, a strategy, or a policy created by another person and use it advantageously. It can also mean to grab attention by anticipating and pre-empting the strategy of another. This figurative phrase supposedly originated with an angry remark made …
Continue reading “They Will Not Let My Play Run, But Steal My Thunder”
Edgar Allan Poe? Edward Hastings Ford? Lloyd Biggle Jr.? Pat Williams? Joss Whedon? Bumper Sticker? T-Shirt Slogan? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: The following statement has been attributed to Edgar Allan Poe, the influential writer of detective fiction and the macabre: I don’t suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it! Poe died in 1849 …
Continue reading “I Don’t Suffer from Insanity; I Enjoy Every Minute of It!”
Chinese Curse? Austen Chamberlain? Frederic R. Coudert? Joseph Chamberlain? Diplomatic Staff? Albert Camus? Arthur C. Clarke? Robert F. Kennedy? Hillary Rodham Clinton? Question for Quote Investigator: The most fascinating periods in history were filled with tumult and upheaval. Tales of treachery, wars, and chaos provide compelling reading, but the participants who were living through the …
Pablo Picasso? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: To accomplish an arduous cerebral task it is necessary to avoid quotidian interruptions and achieve a deeper form of concentration. The remarkable painter Pablo Picasso has been credited with the following perceptive adage: Without great solitude no serious work is possible. This quotation is popular, but I have only …
Continue reading “Nothing Can Be Accomplished Without Solitude”
Vincent van Gogh? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: Several self-help books contain a statement about achieving magnificent results via an incremental approach. The saying is attributed to the brilliant and original painter Vincent van Gogh: Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together. And great things are not …
Gore Vidal? Stormont Mancroft? Gareth Williams? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: The following quotation has been attributed to the writer and political commentator Gore Vidal: The four most beautiful words in the English language are ‘I told you so’. Was this statement crafted by Vidal? Quote Investigator: Gore Vidal did employ versions of this saying on …
Continue reading “The Four Most Beautiful Words in the English Language:”
George Orwell? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: Lately, I have been seeing the following quotation about warfare attributed to the famous political writer George Orwell: War against a foreign country only happens when the moneyed classes think they are going to profit from it. I am skeptical of this attribution. Is this a genuine statement from …
Woody Allen? Rod Riggs? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: The ability to read and comprehend text quickly is a valuable skill. Several decades ago courses were developed that attempted to teach “speed reading” or “quick reading” techniques. The well-known comedian Woody Allen created a joke about applying speed-reading strategies to Tolstoy’s massive tome “War and Peace”. …
Will Rogers? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: While searching for a quotation on the subject of government in a reference book I came across a quip from the famous cowboy and Native American humorist Will Rogers: I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts. But the supporting citation was dated 1962, …
Maya Angelou? Joan Walsh Anglund? William Hazlitt? Alfred Lord Tennyson? Jimmie Allison? Lou Holtz? Dear Quote Investigator: In 2015 the U.S. Postal Service released a controversial commemorative stamp featuring the prominent author Maya Angelou which displayed the following words: A bird doesn’t sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song. …
Continue reading “A Bird Doesn’t Sing Because It Has an Answer, It Sings Because It Has a Song”