Tracing Quotations
Niels Bohr? Samuel Goldwyn? K. K. Steincke? Robert Storm Petersen? Yogi Berra? Mark Twain? Nostradamus? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: There is a family of popular humorous sayings about the formidable task of successful prognostication. Here are five examples: Of course, a prediction is inherently about the future, and the modifiers “especially” and “particularly” emphasize …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: It’s Difficult to Make Predictions, Especially About the Future”
Max Beerbohm? Rupert Brooke? Philip Guedalla? Oscar Wilde? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: I have heard two distinct, humorous, and antithetical sayings about the composition of history: 1) History repeats itself, and the historians repeat each other 2) History does not repeat itself. The historians repeat each other. Statements of this type have been attributed …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: History Does Not Repeat Itself. The Historians Repeat One Another”
Oscar Wilde? Myron W. Reed? Will Rogers? Charlie Carter? Question for Quote Investigator: Several weeks ago I saw an article with the following humorous title: Why Arianna’s Talk Was the Best I’ve Ever Slept Through The piece was actually a very positive assessment and summary of a talk delivered by Arianna Huffington, founder of The …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: It Is the Best Play I Ever Slept Through”
Yogi Berra? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Would you please explore another Yogiism? The following comical remark is attributed to the celebrated baseball player: Never answer an anonymous letter. If the letter contains no information about the sender then, of course, it is impossible to reply. That is the humorous interpretation. But Yogi Berra once …
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Ayn Rand? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The Newsfeed section of the Time magazine website recently wrote about a successful fashion retailer which was selling a shirt called an “Unstoppable Muscle Tee” that displayed a quotation attributed to a top-selling author and controversial philosopher: “The question isn’t who is going to let me, it’s who …
Niels Bohr? Albert Einstein? Carl Alfred Meier? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: There is popular anecdote about a journalist or friend who visited the home of a prominent physicist. The visitor was surprised to find a horseshoe above the front doorway of the scientist’s abode. Tradition asserts that a horseshoe acts as a talisman of …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: I Understand It Brings You Luck, Whether You Believe in It or Not”
Yogi Berra? Jim Prior? Clifford Terry? John Anders? Tish Baldrige? Anonymous? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Déjà vu is the eerie and intense sensation that something you are experiencing has happened before. This feeling is often illusory because the event being experienced is genuinely novel. The term déjà vu can also be used to simply …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: It’s Déjà Vu All Over Again”
Mark Twain? Thomas Jefferson? Martin Farquhar Tupper? Seneca? Winston Churchill? James A. Garfield? Thomas Dixon? Michel de Montaigne? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Everyone faces difficulties in life; however, the worry-filled anticipation of possible setbacks pointlessly magnifies dangers. A comical statement illuminating this theme has been attributed to both Mark Twain and Winston Churchill: I …
Groucho Marx? George Carlin? John Charteris? Theodor Reik? Doctor Who? Shirley Hazzard? Niall MacDermot? Sam Ervin? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: The famous comedians Groucho Marx and George Carlin are both credited with a joke that can be expressed in many ways. Here are some examples: Military Intelligence is an oxymoron.Military Intelligence is a contradiction …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Military Intelligence is a Contradiction in Terms or an Oxymoron”
Mark Twain? George Roemisch? Sophia May Eckley? Ella A. Giles? Elizabeth Reeves Humphreys? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The following evocative metaphorical definition of forgiveness is often attributed to Mark Twain: Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it. But I have seen the quotation below credited to …