Tracing Quotations
William Butler Yeats? Plutarch? Socrates? Plato? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: There is a superb quotation about education that I have encountered many times. Here is a collection of examples with attributions that I have been accumulating. None of the examples came with citations: Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a …
Continue reading “The Mind Is Not a Vessel That Needs Filling, But Wood That Needs Igniting”
Dorothy Parker? Bill Miller? Frank Dolan? Sid Ziff? Bennett Cerf? Groucho Marx? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: The most scathingly hilarious quip about a novel is usually credited to the famous wit Dorothy Parker who purportedly included it in a book review: This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be …
Mark Twain? Gay Zenola MacLaren? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: The following compelling advice is credited to Mark Twain in self-help books and on websites. It is valuable guidance in my opinion: Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, …
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Groucho Marx? Henry G. Strauss? Phil Harris? Joe E. Lewis? Anonymous? Topic: Smoking? Drinking? Dear Quote Investigator: There is a family of jokes about smoking, drinking, and reading. The quips certainly do not reflect the actions of role models, but they are funny: When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading. …
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Alfred Kinsey? Richard Brinsley Sheridan? Xaviera Hollander? William Burroughs? Sigmund Freud? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Years ago I read a statement credited to the researcher Alfred Kinsey who was famous for producing the Kinsey Reports on sexual behavior. I do not remember the exact phrasing but the expression was similar to this: The only unnatural …
Continue reading “The Only Unnatural Sex Act Is That Which One Cannot Perform”
Albert Einstein? Cell Phone Critics? Pranksters? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: A friend sent me a link to a message on a website with the title: “The day that Albert Einstein feared may have finally arrived”. The message showed eight pictures of groups of people looking intently at cell phone screens. The people were ignoring one …
Continue reading “I Fear the Day That Technology Will Surpass Our Human Interaction”
Carl Sagan? Newsweek Reporters? Sharon Begley? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: Today on the website of a software developer I saw an inspiring quotation that was credited to the famous astronomer and science communicator Carl Sagan: Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. I would like to use this quotation also, but I have not …
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Coco Chanel? Yves Saint Laurent? Diana Vreeland? Pier Luigi Nervi? Tom Stoppard? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: The fashion designer Coco Chanel was brilliant and innovative. I am interested in a motto that she may have originated: Fashion passes; style remains. When did she say this? Quote Investigator: The earliest close match for this phrase known …
Winston Churchill? Theodore Roosevelt? Zig Ziglar? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: I work in an office where they hang inspirational posters on the wall. The caption of one sign credits the following words to the master orator Winston Churchill: Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference. I think that the person who created …
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A. A. Milne? Alfred E. Neuman? Winnie the Pooh? The Foolish Almanak? Theodor Rosyfelt? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: I saw the following entertaining quotation on several websites where it was ascribed to the Winnie-the-Pooh character of the author A. A. Milne: People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day. I searched for …
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