Tracing Quotations
Mark Twain? W. C. Fields? Harris Dickson? Barracuda Pete? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: I mentioned a joke credited to Mark Twain to a friend recently: It’s easy to quit smoking. I’ve done it hundreds of times. She said that the jest was actually created by the famous comedian W. C. Fields and not Twain. Also, …
Continue reading “It’s Easy to Quit Smoking. I’ve Done It a Thousand Times”
Ralph Waldo Emerson? Eric Mark Golnik? Thomas Hitchcock, Jr.? Thomas Hitchcock, Sr.? F. Ambrose Clark? Rosalind Russell? Jock Whitney? Desi Arnaz? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: There is a quotation about sportsmanship that I would like to learn more about: Win as if you were used to it, lose as if you enjoyed it for a …
Continue reading “Lose As If You Like It, and Win As If You Are Used to It”
Albert Einstein? Nick the Greek? Nicholas Dandolos? Ted Thackrey, Jr.? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: According to a legend in the gambling world Albert Einstein once visited a Las Vegas casino and after observing the action around the roulette wheel he said: You cannot beat a roulette table unless you steal money from it. Any truth …
Hillary Clinton? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: I saw on Facebook recently a supposed quotation from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. While visiting some country in Central Asia she was asked by a reporter about fashion and she replied: Would you ever ask a man that question? No details were given about when or where this …
Winston Churchill? Paul S. Nadler? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: I heard this story many years ago at an economics convention. I’ve contacted the Churchill Archive and a couple of renowned Churchill scholars, and so far the answer seems to be “apocryphal,” as with so many great quotes attributed to the Great Quote Magnet. But it …
Continue reading “Anecdote: It Will Take Them Ten Years to Prove Me Wrong”
Ralph Waldo Emerson? Lynn H. Hough? Aerosmith? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Ralph Waldo Emerson is often credited with the following: Life is a journey, not a destination. I’ve searched the RWE.org database without luck and did a text search through over 1100 pages of his essays. I believe this is a misattribution. Any insight you …
Mark Twain? William Allen White? Franklin P. Adams? Brock Pemberton? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: I’ve been quoting an editor-friend’s advice for years, and suddenly tonight I see it online attributed to Mark Twain: Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very’; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it …
Continue reading “Advice: Substitute ‘Damn’ Every Time You’re Inclined to Write ‘Very’”
Edna St. Vincent Millay? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: A recent controversial article about critics and criticism in the New York Times contained a refreshingly blunt two-part quotation [DGNY]: To writers, Edna St. Vincent Millay offered the wisest counsel. It rings down the decades. “A person who publishes a book willfully appears before the populace with …
Top language columnist Ben Zimmer has written a great article for the Boston Globe about YOLO. He referenced QI (a.k.a. Garson O’Toole) and some of the research that was posted on this website. Zimmer is the executive producer of VisualThesaurus.com and Vocabulary.com. He also writes for the New York Times. Newspapers are shrinking, and the …
Ingrid Bergman? Evan Esar? Paul H. Gilbert? Hal Boyle? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: One of my favorite websites recently presented a collection of “Ten Favorite Quotations about Words”. Number one was about osculation: A kiss is a lovely trick, designed by nature, to stop speech when words become superfluous. These words were attributed to the …
Continue reading “Kiss: A Trick of Nature to Stop Speech When Words Are Superfluous”