Arthur Ashe? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: While engaging in a difficult physical or mental task one sometimes achieves a state of sublime concentration that enables remarkable performance. Athletes employ the following phrase to describe this ideal status: In The Zone Would you please explore the origin of this expression? Reply from Quote Investigator: During …
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Quote Origin: If All the Economists Were Laid End to End, They Would Not Reach a Conclusion
George Bernard Shaw? Farmer Brown? Isaac Marcosson? Stephen Leacock? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: The advice offered by economists is often equivocal and hedged. The famous playwright and witty social critic George Bernard Shaw reportedly crafted the following lament: If all the economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion. I …
Quote Origin: Dancing Is a Perpendicular Expression of a Horizontal Desire
George Bernard Shaw? George Melly? I. S. Johar? Ann Landers? Patrick Harte? Robert Frost? Winston Churchill? Oscar Wilde? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Here are two versions of an adage highlighting the sensual aspects of popular gyrations: George Bernard Shaw, Ann Landers, Oscar Wilde, and Robert Frost have received credit for this saying. What do …
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Quote Origin: Language Serves Not Only to Express Thoughts, but to Make Possible Thoughts Which Could Not Exist Without It
Bertrand Russell? Neil Postman? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The relationship between language and thought is complex. The famous philosopher Bertrand Russell held the provocative belief that some thoughts could not exist without language. I believe I read this assertion in a book Russell wrote, but I have not been able to relocate the apposite …
Quote Origin: I Am Only a Public Entertainer Who Has Understood His Times
Pablo Picasso? Giovanni Papini? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Pablo Picasso reportedly admitted in a “Confession” that he did not consider himself a great artist; instead, he was an entertainer who shocked and amused the rich and indolent to gain fame and wealth. Did Picasso really say this? Reply from Quote Investigator: No. The well-known …
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Quote Origin: Even a Stopped Clock Is Right Twice a Day
Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach? Lewis Carroll? Charles L. Dodgson? Joseph Addison? Richard Steele? Diedrich Knickerbocker? Washington Irving? Albany de Grenier Fonblanque? Paulo Coelho? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: An obtuse, unreliable, or incompetent person occasionally performs properly. Here are three versions of a proverb reflecting this observation: This saying has been attributed to the prominent Austrian …
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Quote Origin: There Ain’t No Such Thing as a Free Lunch — TANSTAAFL
Milton Friedman? Robert Heinlein? Robert G. Ingersoll? Michael Montague? Walter Morrow? John Madden? Harley L. Lutz? Pierre Dos Utt? Leonard P. Ayres? Jake Falstaff? Herman Fetzer? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Today many goods and services are available for free especially via the internet. However, the true cost is usually not zero. Subsidies, indirect costs, …
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Quote Origin: If Noah Had Been Truly Wise, He Would Have Swatted Those Two Flies
Helen Castle? Charley Prentice? Walt Mason? Kenneth Richards? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Noah collected and placed pairs of living creatures onto the ark he constructed according to the famous biblical tale. But not all creatures are looked upon favorably by humankind. The following comical couplet chides Noah for missing a rare opportunity: If Noah …
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Quote Origin: You May Live To See Man-Made Horrors Beyond Your Comprehension
Nikola Tesla? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Nikola Tesla was a brilliant inventor and showman with a science fictional mystique. The following ominous quotation is attributed to him: You may live to see man-made horrors beyond your comprehension. Would you please help to find a solid citation? Reply from Quote Investigator: The earliest strong match …
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Quote Origin: We Are Taught To Fly in the Air Like Birds, and To Swim in the Water Like the Fishes; But How To Live on the Earth We Don’t Know
George Bernard Shaw? Martin Luther King? Maxim Gorky? Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan? C. E. M. Joad? Walter Winchell? Jack Paar? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Technological progress today is shockingly vertiginous, but advancements toward human reconciliation and harmony are glacially slow. A saying from the previous century treats this topic with poignancy: Now that we have learned …