Wilfred Thesiger? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: Our local newspaper printed the following quotation and attribution: “The harder the life, the better the man,” the British desert explorer Sir Wilfred Thesiger is popularly quoted as having said. Thesiger led an extraordinary life as an explorer and travel writer, and he left behind a large trove of …
Author Archives: quoteresearch
To Love What You Do and Feel That It Matters—How Could Anything Be More Fun?
Katharine Graham? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: I enjoy reading your website and refer to it frequently. I’ve been trying to ascertain the origin of the following: To love what you do and feel that it matters, how could anything else be more fun? This quote is all over the place credited to Katharine Graham, but …
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Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History
Marilyn Monroe? Eleanor Roosevelt? Anne Boleyn? Laurel Thatcher Ulrich? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Observing a stream of tweets is a confusing way to learn about a quotation: Well behaved women rarely make history – Marilyn Monroe Well-behaved women rarely make history – Eleanor Roosevelt Well behaved women rarely make history – Anne Boleyn Well behaved …
St Paul’s Cathedral Is Amusing, Awful, and Artificial
King Charles II? Queen Anne? King James II? King William III? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: There is a venerable tale illustrating the shifts that occur in the meanings of words over time. During the construction of the Cathedral of St Paul the monarch of England was taken on a tour of the edifice by the …
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Today a Reader; Tomorrow a Leader
Margaret Fuller? W. Fusselman? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: There is a popular motivational quotation that is usually attributed to Margaret Fuller and is displayed on many educational websites: Today a reader, tomorrow a leader. Wikiquote lists an extensive collection of quotations from Fuller, but I was unable to find this one. Fuller’s opus “Woman in …
It Has Become Appallingly Obvious That Our Technology Has Exceeded Our Humanity
Albert Einstein? Victor Salva? Sean Patrick Flanery? Jeff Goldblum? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: There’s a quote attributed to Albert Einstein which I like a lot, but I’m not sure if it’s really his: It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity. Can you please tell me if it was said or …
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Ancient Tablet: The World is Speedily Coming to an End. Everyone Wants to Write a Book
Ancient Assyrian tablet maker? Egyptian priest? George T. W. Patrick? George S. Godard? Frederick C. Ferry? Cicero? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The world was supposed to end in 2012 according to many individuals. But the entity assigned the task may have been too busy destroying other worlds. The Smithsonian website posted an article titled: …
Folks Are Usually About as Happy as They Make Up Their Minds To Be
Abraham Lincoln? Frank Crane? Orison Swett Marden? Dale Carnegie? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: On twitter recently there was an exchange about a deeply insightful quotation credited to Abraham Lincoln: Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. I love this saying, and it helps me to reflect constructively on …
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The One Who Follows the Crowd Will Usually Go No Further Than the Crowd
Albert Einstein? Eda LeShan? Alan Ashley-Pitt? Francis Phillip Wernig? Oscar Wilde? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: The following quote has been credited to Albert Einstein and posted on Facebook and various websites: The one who follows the crowd will usually go no further than the crowd. Those who walk alone are likely to find themselves in …
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The Best Hospitals Are Not Those Which Merely Use Knowledge But Those Which Create It
George W. Pickering? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: A thoughtful quotation about the connection between medical research and medical care has been credited to Sir George W. Pickering: Medicine is an advancing science and the best hospitals are not those which merely use knowledge but those which create it. Pickering was a professor of medicine at …