Samuel Goldwyn? Jerry Wald? Jed Harris? Louis Sobol? Walter Winchell? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: Making a weighty decision is difficult because one must be willing to forgo alternative choices and possibilities. The following equivocal statement comical illustrates this psychological tension: I can give you a definite maybe. The words above have been attributed to the …
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You Can Discover More About a Person in an Hour of Play than in a Year of Conversation
Plato? Richard Lingard? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Plato’s philosophical thoughts were explicated using the format of a dialogue in which the participants expressed clashing ideas. The following quotation attributed to Plato seems to be a comical twist on his true attitude: You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in …
A False Enchantment Can All Too Easily Last a Lifetime
W. H. Auden? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: The following evocative statement has been attributed to the prominent poet W. H. Auden: A false enchantment can all too easily last a lifetime. I find it so frustrating that people post and repost this quote without pointing to its precise source. Would you please help? Quote Investigator: …
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Life Is Too Important To Be Taken Seriously
Oscar Wilde? G. K. Chesterton? H. L. Mencken? Sebastian Melmoth? Dear Quote Investigator: The following cryptic paradox has been attributed to the famous wit Oscar Wilde: Life is too important to be taken seriously. Yet, I have not found this statement in Wilde’s plays or essays. Would you please examine its provenance? Quote Investigator: Oscar …
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With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility
Voltaire? Spider-Man? Winston Churchill? Theodore Roosevelt? Franklin D. Roosevelt? Lord Melbourne? John Cumming? Hercules G. R. Robinson? Henry W. Haynes? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: There is a popular saying about the relationship between ascendancy and obligation: With great power comes great responsibility. This expression has been attributed to two very different sources: Voltaire and the …
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I Want a Film that Begins with an Earthquake and Works Up to a Climax
Samuel Goldwyn? William Pine? William Thomas? Louis B. Mayer? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: Some recent Hollywood action movies begin with an explosion and follow with a series of frenetic semi-coherent set pieces. The script writers seem to be channeling the late movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn’s funny advice for creating a blockbuster: We need a story …
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A Gold Mine Is a Hole in the Ground with a Liar at the Top
Mark Twain? Bill Nye? Mr. Walkup? Eli Perkin? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Recently, a business website published an article about investing in gold and mining equities. The columnist began with a very funny and facetious remark attributed to Mark Twain:[1]Website: Bloomberg View, Article title: Are Shares of Gold Miners a ‘Buy’?, Author: Barry Ritholtz, Date …
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The Man Who Tries Methods, Ignoring Principles, Is Sure to Have Trouble
Ralph Waldo Emerson? Harrison Emmerson? Harrington Emerson? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: It is always possible to attempt to solve a problem by clumsily trying a variety of methods, but it is better to select an appropriate technique based on principled understanding. The following statement has been attributed to the famous philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson: The …
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Truth Is Stranger than Fiction, But It Is Because Fiction Is Obliged to Stick to Possibilities; Truth Isn’t
Mark Twain? Lord Byron? G. K. Chesterton? Edward Bellamy? Humphrey Bogart? Leo Rosten? Tom Clancy? Dear Quote Investigator: There is a wonderful quotation by Mark Twain about the implausibility of truth versus fiction. Here are four versions: 1) Why shouldn’t truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction, after all, has to make sense. 2) It’s no …
Better To Fail in Originality than To Succeed in Imitation
Herman Melville? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: The major literary figure Herman Melville was famous for envisioning an archetypal beast and a fateful battle in “Moby-Dick; or, The Whale” published in 1851. Reportedly, Melville wrote an article that extolled creativity with the following assertion: It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation. …
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