Tracing Quotations
Ann Landers? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Many years ago I read a poem I greatly enjoyed in a newspaper column by Ann Landers. Unfortunately, I only remember a few fragments: What will you give one small boy? … a tinker toy? No, give him a day he can call his own. Can you find the …
Continue reading “Fathers: Give the Gift that Only You Can to Your Child”
Helen Gurley Brown? Lawrence Johnstone? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Helen Gurley Brown was a pioneering and controversial editor at Cosmopolitan magazine. One of her most famous lines was: Good girls go to heaven. Bad girls go everywhere. I saw this quote in two of her recent obituary notices, but I have not seen a solid …
Continue reading “Good Girls Go to Heaven. Bad Girls Go Everywhere”
Mark Twain? Edwin E. Slosson? Harry Lloyd Miller? Professor Rathburn? Mortimer J. Adler? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Mark Twain is credited with a very funny description of college lectures. For some teachers and students I think this quotation is accurate: College is a place where a professor’s lecture notes go straight to the students’ lecture …
Continue reading “The Professor’s Lecture Notes Go Straight to the Students’ Lecture Notes”
Thomas Edison? Henry Dodd? Isaiah Hale? Paul Larmer? Lila Kroppmann? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: The following quote is credited to Thomas Edison: Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work. Do you know when he said this and to whom? Quote Investigator: Both QI and top researcher …
Continue reading “Opportunity Is Missed Because It Is Dressed in Overalls and Looks Like Work”
Mick Jagger? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: The Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” is one of their most popular songs. Today lead singer Mick Jagger is almost seventy years old. When he was much younger he supposedly said something like this: (1) I’d rather be dead than singing Satisfaction when I’m forty-five. (2) I’d …
Continue reading “I’d Rather Be Dead than Sing Satisfaction When I’m 45”
Jimi Hendrix? Bob Dawbarn? Chris Welch? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: Guitar legend Jimi Hendrix died tragically when he was only 27 years old. Shortly before his death he supposedly said this: It’s funny how most people love the dead. Once you’re dead, you’re made for life. Was this quote created by mythmakers, or did Hendrix …
Earl Wilson? Cy N. Peace? Earl Nelson? Whitt N. Schultz? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: I am trying to unearth the source of a quote credited to the columnist Earl Wilson which seems to be everywhere on the web but without a source: Modern man drives a mortgaged car over a bond-financed highway on credit-card gas. …
Continue reading “Modern Man Drives a Mortgaged Car Over a Bond-Financed Highway on Credit-Card Gas”
Gore Vidal? La Rochefoucauld? W. Somerset Maugham? Wilfrid Sheed? Iris Murdoch? David Merrick? Genghis Khan? Larry Ellison? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Competition and jealousy are reflected in a family of closely related cynical sayings: It is not enough to succeed; one’s best friend must fail. It is not enough to succeed; one’s friends must fail. …
Continue reading “It Is Not Enough to Succeed; One’s Best Friend Must Fail”
Speaker: Gore Vidal? Peter Bogdanovich? Sue Mengers? Jason Epstein? Anonymous? Subject: Truman Capote? Elvis Presley? Michael Jackson? Gore Vidal? Dear Quote Investigator: Pop star Michael Jackson died in 2009 when he was only fifty years old. One memorably caustic remark I heard at that time was: His death was a good career move. Apparently, the …
Mohandas Gandhi? L. L. Bean? Kenneth B. Elliott? Great Western Fuel Company? Ray Noyes? Paul T. Babson? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: There is a popular business motto that is used by corporate departments of Customer Relations and Human Resources: A customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He is not dependent on us. …
Continue reading “The Customer is Not an Interruption in Our Work; He Is the Purpose of It”