Mark Twain? Oscar Wilde? Josh Billings? Spanish Proverb? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Everyone is guilty of some procrastination. Even the industrious humorist Mark Twain was credited with a quotation sympathetic to the indolent: Never put off till tomorrow, what you can do the day after tomorrow. Puzzlingly, this same quip has been ascribed to …
Author Archives: quoteresearch
Quote Origin: I Hope He Will Bite My Other Generals and Make Them Mad, Too
King George II? Duke of Newcastle? Joe Miller? James Wolfe? Question for Quote Investigator: When George II of Great Britain was planning to send General James Wolfe on a military expedition to Canada his close advisor told him that Wolfe was a poor selection for such an important assignment because he was a madman. The …
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Quote Origin: The ‘t’ Is Silent, as in Harlow
Margot Asquith? Margot Grahame? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: According to a Hollywood legend there was a pointed verbal encounter between the movie siren Jean Harlow and the sharp-tongued English aristocrat Margot Asquith. When Harlow attended a party given by Asquith, the movie star presumptuously referred to the hostess by her first name, and she …
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Quote Origin: Watch Your Thoughts, They Become Words; Watch Your Words, They Become Actions
Ralph Waldo Emerson? Lao Tzu? Frank Outlaw? Gautama Buddha? Bishop Beckwaith? Father of Margaret Thatcher? Question for Quote Investigator: What do the following people have in common: Transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson, Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu, supermarket magnate Frank Outlaw, spiritual teacher Gautama Buddha, and the father of Margaret Thatcher? Each one of these individuals has …
Quote Origin: Why Don’t You Carry a Wrist Watch Like Everyone Else?
Herbert Beerbohm Tree? Frederick Henry Townsend? George du Maurier? Yogi Berra? Mutt and Jeff? An inebriate? A woman carrying packages? Question for Quote Investigator: I have read several instances of a popular comical anecdote. Two different versions featured baseball Hall-of-Famer Yogi Berra. One night he was presented with a grandfather clock at a banquet dinner. …
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Quote Origin: Let Your Memory Be Your Travel Bag
Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: On a website dedicated to travel I saw a quotation credited to the famous Soviet dissident Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: Own only what you can carry with you; know language, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag. Is this attribution accurate? A travel tip from Solzhenitsyn …
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Quote Origin: Imagination Is More Important Than Knowledge
Albert Einstein? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Many websites credit Albert Einstein with this statement: Imagination is more important than knowledge. I am skeptical. Are these the words of Einstein? Reply from Quote Investigator: This remark apparently was made by Einstein during an interview that was published in “The Saturday Evening Post” in 1929. Here …
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Quote Origin: I Really Didn’t Say Everything I Said
Yogi Berra? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Thanks for working to help clear up so many incorrect quotations and attributions. I have a question about a quote that might be suitable as the motto of your website. Yogi Berra supposedly said one the following Yogi-isms: 1. I really didn’t say everything I said. 2. I …
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Quote Origin: Thank You for the Gift Book. I Shall Lose No Time In Reading It
Benjamin Disraeli? William Gladstone? William Makepeace Thackeray? Moses Hadas? A celebrated botanist? A Scotchman? Thomas Bailey Aldrich? Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.? Samuel Wilberforce? Max O’Rell? Question for Quote Investigator: Aspiring authors sent numerous manuscripts to the statesman and novelist Benjamin Disraeli. Reportedly, he would send back a wittily ambiguous response: Many thanks; I shall lose …
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Quote Origin: The Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grease
Josh Billings? Josh Weathersby? Cal Stewart? Ring Lardner? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Individuals who complain often receive the most attention. There is a popular analogy about squeaky wheels that I think has been incorrectly attributed to the humorist Josh Billings who was a famous lecturer in the 1800s. (Billings was the pseudonym of Henry …
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