Tracing Quotations
Oscar Hammerstein II? Dorothy Hammerstein? Leonard Lyons? Dear Quote Investigator: The division of credit between music composers and lyricists can be controversial. Some lyricists believe that their song writing skills are not given adequate respect. One vivid anecdote revealed the unhappiness of Dorothy Hammerstein who was the wife of the prominent Broadway song creator Oscar …
Continue reading “Lyricist Versus Composer: The Song “Ol’ Man River””
Sam Levenson? Oscar Levant? W. C. Fields? Helen Gorn Sutin? Dave Berg? Ann Landers? Erma Bombeck? Grace Kelly? Dear Quote Investigator: Many parents concur with a very funny quip that reverses the traditional notion of inheritance: Insanity is hereditary. You get it from your kids. This joke has been attributed to the newspaper columnist Erma …
Continue reading “Insanity Is Hereditary. You Can Get It from Your Children”
Abraham Lincoln? Artemus Ward? George Bernard Shaw? Max Beerbohm? Muriel Spark? Dear Quote Investigator: A popular anecdote asserts that Abraham Lincoln was obliged to listen to a prolix lecture about spiritualism by an enthusiastic friend. After the discourse was complete, Lincoln’s opinion was sought, and he replied with a humorously redundant non-committal statement designed to …
Continue reading “People Who Like This Sort of Thing Will Find This the Sort of Thing They Like”
George Bernard Shaw? Oscar Wilde? Irvin Cobb? Michel de Montaigne? John Brunner? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: A very popular acerbic adage combines wisdom and wistfulness together with a modicum of jealousy: Youth is wasted on the young. These words have been attributed to two famous Irish wits: George Bernard Shaw and Oscar Wilde. Oddly, I …
Vladimir Nabokov? Harry B. Smith? Augustus Thomas? George M. Cohan? George Abbott? Steven Spielberg? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Recently, I saw a fascinating quotation about writing that was attributed to the brilliant prose stylist Vladimir Nabokov: The writer’s job is to get the main character up a tree, and then once they are up there, …
Mark Twain? Lilian Bell? Elbert Hubbard? Frank Ward O’Malley? Bruce Calvert? H. L. Mencken? Charles Dickens? Edna St. Vincent Millay? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: The following statement of exasperation and resignation has been attributed to the luminary Mark Twain, the aphorist Elbert Hubbard, and the journalist Frank Ward O’Malley: Life is just one damn thing …
Continue reading “Life Is Just One Damn Thing After Another”
Heidelberg Professor? Chairman of an Irish Company? Claude T. Bissell? Sean MacReamoinn? Walter Heller? Garret FitzGerald? Ernest Hollings? Anonymous? Quote Investigator: There is a fundamental distinction between theory and practice. Sometimes a strategy that should work based on theoretical considerations fails when implemented in practice. This insight has been comically twisted to generate the following …
Continue reading “That Works Very Well in Practice, But How Does It Work In Theory?”
Chinese Proverb? Maimonides? Lao-Tzu? Anne Isabella Thackeray Ritchie? Italian Adage? Native American Saying? Mao Zedong? Question for Quote Investigator: The following piece of proverbial wisdom is remarkably astute: Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime. The origin of …
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry? Apocryphal? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: The French aviator and writer Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was best known internationally as the author of “Le Petit Prince” (“The Little Prince”). Many self-help guides and books about management now contain a saying about motivation and organization that often has been attributed to Saint-Exupéry. Here are three …
Continue reading “Teach Them to Yearn for the Vast and Endless Sea”
Albert Camus? Apocryphal? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: The French writer and philosopher Albert Camus was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1957. His influential works have been called absurdist and existentialist although he personally rejected the label existentialist. The following lines have been widely attributed to him: Don’t walk behind me, I may not lead. Don’t …