Tracing Quotations
Mick Jagger? Ian Whitcomb? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The Rolling Stones’ song “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” is one of their most popular tunes. The Hackney Diamonds Tour of the band ended in July 2024, and shortly afterwards Jagger became eighty years old. When he was much younger he supposedly said something like this: …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: I’d Rather Be Dead than Sing ‘Satisfaction’ When I’m 45”
Jimi Hendrix? Bob Dawbarn? Chris Welch? Apocryphal? Question for 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 …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Once You Are Dead, You Are Made for Life”
Earl Wilson? Cy N. Peace? Earl Nelson? Whitt N. Schultz? Anonymous? Question for 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 …
Gore Vidal? La Rochefoucauld? W. Somerset Maugham? Wilfrid Sheed? Iris Murdoch? David Merrick? Genghis Khan? Larry Ellison? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Competition and jealousy are reflected in a family of closely related cynical sayings: I have heard different versions of these quotations credited to the epigrammatist La Rochefoucauld, the writer Gore Vidal, and the …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: 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? Question for 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, …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Death Was a Good Career Move”
Mohandas Gandhi? L. L. Bean? Kenneth B. Elliott? Great Western Fuel Company? Ray Noyes? Paul T. Babson? Anonymous? Question for 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 …
Thomas Edison? Walter S. Mallory? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: There are many versions of a popular story about the inventor Thomas Edison. He was working on the creation of a practical light bulb or a new battery. He and his team of researchers conducted a series of unsuccessful experiments. The number of negative laboratory …
Kenneth Holmes? Frank Crane? Hugh Barrett Dobbs? Sister Mary Xavier? Sybil F. Partridge? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: There is an inspirational essay called “Just for Today” that I have seen on many websites. It consists of a series of suggestions or guidelines. There are many versions, but one common example begins with the following …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Just for Today, I Will Try to Live Through This Day Only”
Winston Churchill? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: My question is about a quotation spotlighted in a recent news story. Two massive power companies merged and this caused a boardroom battle. The CEO, Bill Johnson, of the combined enterprise was abruptly ousted. Johnson reportedly alienated his new board members by using a saying attributed to Winston …
Thomas Jefferson? Coleman Cox? Stephen Leacock? Samuel Goldwyn? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: There is a humorously insightful quotation about luck that is often credited to the American Founding Father Thomas Jefferson: I’m a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it. The class notes of a …