Tracing Quotations
Samuel Goldwyn? Bryan O’Loghlen? Boyle Roche? Ed Wynn? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: A contract that is written and signed is easier to comprehend and enforce. But many people rely on unwritten promises. The following cautionary humorous remark is attributed to the famous movie producer Samuel Goldwyn: A verbal contract isn’t worth the paper it’s written …
Continue reading “A Verbal Contract Isn’t Worth the Paper It’s Written On”
Stephen Hawking? Apocryphal? Quote Investigator: There is an argument against the existence of time travel that can be stated as follows: If time travel were possible, we would have been overrun by tourists from the future by now. Did the famous physicist Stephen Hawking say something like this? Alternatively, was it said by another physicist …
Bill Vaughan? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: I once read a humorous comment about New Year’s Eve that contrasted the experiences of the young and the middle aged. The young were joyful because they were “allowed to stay up late” while the older people held a different opinion. Are you familiar with this joke and its …
William Lyon Phelps? Apocryphal? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: I noticed that you have quotations from J. K. Rowling, Malcolm Forbes, and Paul Eldridge about how to evaluate the character of an individual. Here is another saying of this type that is credited to a charismatic Yale professor named William Lyon Phelps: It is the final …
Ulysses S. Grant? Abraham Lincoln? W. S. Gilbert? William Tecumseh Sherman? Victor Borge? Richie Havens? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: The holiday season is filled with singing, but my talent in this domain can be accurately summarized with the following quotation: I know only two tunes: one of them is “Yankee Doodle,” and the other isn’t. …
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Marshall McLuhan? Albert Einstein? Clyde Kluckhohn? Pierce Butler? James C. Coleman? John H. Fisher? John Culkin? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Sometimes an individual embedded in a particular culture or environment can become blind to the prevailing norms within his or her domain. I have heard a figurative expression that illustrates this predicament. Here are three …
Continue reading “We Don’t Know Who Discovered Water, But We Know It Wasn’t a Fish”
Ralph Waldo Emerson? Norman Vincent Peale? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: The following statement is often attributed to the famous philosopher and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson: What you are comes to you. Some adherents of “New Thought” and “New Age” belief systems view this as a spiritual law. This saying reminded me of the quasi-mystical book …
Bishop of Chelmsford? A. H. Reginald Buller? Albert Einstein? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: There is a popular comical limerick about a young woman named White or Bright that highlights the counterintuitive nature of time measurements in Einstein’s theory of relativity. Do you know this poem? Do you know who composed it? Quote Investigator: The earliest …
Continue reading “There Was a Young Lady Named Bright Whose Speed Was Far Faster Than Light”
George Carlin? Maya Angelou? Vicki Corona? Hilary Cooper? Kevin Bisch? Will Smith? Philip James Bailey? Dear Quote Investigator: The following inspirational quotation has been attributed to a wide variety of people: Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away. I doubt that this …
Niccolò Machiavelli? Jean-Paul Sartre? Jean Paul? Johann Paul Friedrich Richter? Dear Quote Investigator: A student would like to use the following quotation about perspicacity gained through experience in a yearbook, but she has been unable to determine an appropriate ascription: The more sand has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should …