Tracing Quotations
Confucius? Arthur Szathmary? An Old-Timer? Janet Lambert-Moore? Harvey Mackay? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: I assist students in the selection of accurate and properly credited quotations for the school yearbook. One student would like to use a popular adage about career choice: Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day …
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George Bernard Shaw? William H. Whyte? Pierre Martineau? Joseph Coffman? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: I am copy editing a book, and the author would like to include an insightful remark about communication. Here are four versions: 1) The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place. 2) The greatest problem …
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Yogi Berra? Rags Ragland? Suzanne Ridgeway? John McNulty? Ukie Sherin? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: An amusing anecdote states that baseball great Yogi Berra was once asked whether he wished to have dinner at a highly-regarded restaurant, and he replied with a remark combining wisdom with contradiction: Nobody goes there anymore. It’s too crowded. Is this …
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Winston Churchill? Nancy Astor? Marshall Pinckney Wilder? Patrick O’Dowd? David Lloyd George? George Bernard Shaw? Groucho Marx? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: There is a famous anecdote in which an exasperated individual fantasizes aloud about giving poison to another person. The sharp rejoinder is surprising and hilarious. Usually the two named participants are Nancy Astor and …
Spencer Tracy? Noel Coward? Alfred Lunt? Lynn Fontanne? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Some actors engage in elaborate rituals when preparing to perform a role. But the funniest advice about acting that I have ever heard avoids all pretensions. Here are three versions: 1) Speak clearly, and don’t bump into the furniture. 2) Learn your lines …
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Arthur F. Burns? Raymond J. Saulnier? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: One criticism of modern economies asserts that consumer goods are being wastefully over-produced and human happiness has become disconnected from the possession of superfluous material objects. These critics contend that individuals and economic architects should concentrate on creating positive and constructive experiences and deemphasize the …
Continue reading “The Ultimate Purpose of an Economy Is to Produce More Consumer Goods”
Albert Einstein? Neville V. Scarfe? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: A marvelous quotation about play is attributed to the most brilliant scientist of the modern age, Albert Einstein: Play is the highest form of research. I would like to include this statement in a paper I am writing, but I have not been able to find …
Mark Twain? Oxford Student? Frenchman? Lewis Carroll? Schoolchild? G. K. Chesterton? Israel Zangwill? Charles Lamb? Benjamin Jowett? Aldous Huxley? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Determining the accurate provenance of famous plays and poems can be a contentious topic. According to tradition the composer of the Iliad and Odyssey has been referred to as Homer, but some …
Voltaire? William Ralph Inge? Herbert Paul? Paul Chatfield? Horace Smith? Katharine Fullerton Gerould? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: I have been attempting to trace a provocative and humorous remark about originality that has been attributed to a professor at the University of Cambridge named William Ralph Inge: Originality is undetected plagiarism. Would you please help? Quote …
Henry Ward Beecher? Jonas Salk? Hodding Carter? Wise Woman? Ronald Reagan? Jean W. Rindlaub? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: The goals of child rearing have sometimes been explicated using two vivid metaphors: roots and wings. This contrasting figurative language presents a powerful though oddly incongruous combination: Parents should provide their children with roots and wings. There …
Continue reading “There Are Two Lasting Bequests We Can Give Our Children: Roots and Wings”