Tracing Quotations
Martin Luther King? Barack Obama? Theodore Parker? Freemason Commander? Seth Brooks? Jacob Kohn? Question for Quote Investigator: Civil rights champion Martin Luther King, Jr. once delivered a powerful speech with this resonant line: The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. I was told that this metaphorical framework has a …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: The Arc of the Moral Universe Is Long, But It Bends Toward Justice”
Yogi Berra? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: One of the cleverest jokes credited to Yogi Berra is meta-logical. Apparently, some people were following Yogi around and expecting him to utter one of his famous Yogi-isms. Finally, in exasperation he said: If I could just make ’em up on the spot, I’d be famous. This response …
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Winston Churchill? Abba Eban? An Irishman? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: While watching a cable news channel I heard a commentator present a quotation that he credited to Winston Churchill. When I searched the web I found many different versions: (1) Americans can always be counted on to do the right thing…after they have exhausted …
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 …
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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: …