Tracing Quotations
Wilfred Thesiger? Apocryphal? Question for 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 …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: The Harder the Life, the Finer the Type”
Katharine Graham? Anonymous? Question for 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, …
Marilyn Monroe? Eleanor Roosevelt? Anne Boleyn? Laurel Thatcher Ulrich? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Observing a stream of tweets is a confusing way to learn about a quotation: Well behaved women rarely make history – Marilyn MonroeWell-behaved women rarely make history – Eleanor RooseveltWell behaved women rarely make history – Anne BoleynWell behaved women rarely …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History”
King Charles II? Queen Anne? King James II? King William III? Apocryphal? Question for 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 …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: St Paul’s Cathedral Is Amusing, Awful, and Artificial”
Margaret Fuller? W. Fusselman? Anonymous? Question for 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 …
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Albert Einstein? Victor Salva? Sean Patrick Flanery? Jeff Goldblum? Anonymous? Question for 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 …
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: …
Abraham Lincoln? Frank Crane? Orison Swett Marden? Dale Carnegie? Anonymous? Question for 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 …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Folks Are Usually About as Happy as They Make Up Their Minds To Be”
Albert Einstein? Eda LeShan? Alan Ashley-Pitt? Francis Phillip Wernig? Oscar Wilde? Anonymous? Question for 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 …
George W. Pickering? Anonymous? Question for 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 …