Tracing Quotations
Tallulah Bankhead? Merle Miller? Tennessee Williams? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The funniest one-line review of a movie I have ever encountered is the following: Darling, they’ve absolutely ruined your perfectly dreadful play. According to a show-business legend, the movie star Tallulah Bankhead delivered this mortifying judgement to the famous playwright Tennessee Williams when she …
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Henry Ford? Samuel Crowther? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The failure of a project is often disheartening, but some self-help and inspirational texts highlight a quotation that presents a positive interpretation to the setback: Failure is the opportunity to begin again, more intelligently. This statement has been attributed to the assembly-line innovator and industrial titan …
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Martin Luther King Jr.? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A speech by the civil rights icon Martin Luther King, Jr. included a section about the importance of altruism versus selfishness; he posed the following question: What are you doing for others? Would you please help me to locate this quotation? Reply from Quote Investigator: The …
Maya Angelou? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: I once read a piece by the prominent memoirist and poet Maya Angelou that contained a fascinating simile depicting jealousy in a love affair as a spice or salt because it enhanced the flavor of the relationship. I have not been able to relocate this passage, and now …
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Groucho Marx? Ethel Barrymore? Maurice Barrymore? Paul M. Potter? Gertrude Battles Lane? John Lennon? Joe E. Lewis? Robert Heinlein? Marilyn Manson? Augustus John? Oscar Wilde? Question for Quote Investigator: There is well-known and often repeated admonition directed at young people who are making too much noise: Children should be seen and not heard. Wordplay has …
Calvin Coolidge? Theodore Thornton Munger? M. M. Callen? Orison Swett Marden? Edward H. Hart? Question for Quote Investigator: Many books extolling self-improvement include a didactic passage that begins as follows: Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; …
Calvin Coolidge? Frank B. Noyes? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: President Calvin Coolidge was known as “Silent Cal” because of his extraordinarily laconic speech. A famous anecdote tells of a dinner party during which the person sitting adjacent to the Coolidge said: “Mr. President I’ve made a large bet that I would be able to …
Continue reading “Dialogue Origin: “I Bet I Could Get Three Words Out of You.” “You Lose.””
Madison Avenue? Doctor’s Advice? Graffito? Dick Sharples? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: When I strained a muscle recently a friend told me that the injury was nature’s way of telling me to slow down. Another friend quipped: Death is nature’s way of telling you to slow down. Would you please explore this adage? Reply from …
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Nelson Mandela? Pliny the Elder? Daniel Wilson? Elbert Anderson Young? Robert H. Goddard? Robert Heinlein? Norton Juster? Paul Eldridge? Question for Quote Investigator: Politicians, journalists, pundits, and self-help authors are fond of the following inspirational expression: It always seems impossible, until it is done. The words are usually attributed to the activist, statesman, and Nobel …
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H. G. Wells? Barbara Wootton? Lawrence R. Klein? Stanley Kramer? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: If you have ever experienced the manuscript editing process as an editor or an editee you should fully comprehend this quotation: No passion in the world is equal to the passion to alter someone else’s draft. The above remark is …