Tracing Quotations
Thomas Edison? Samuel Insull? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: I am curious about a quote attributed to the remarkable inventor Thomas Edison: We will make electricity so cheap that only the rich will burn candles. What proof exists that Edison actually said this? It’s such a visionary prediction that I’d love for it to be true. …
Continue reading “We Will Make Electricity So Cheap That Only the Rich Will Burn Candles”
Richard Bach? Jess Lair? Anonymous student? Sting? Peter Max? Chantal Sicile? Dear Quote Investigator: On his first solo album in 1985 the musician Sting released a song called: If You Love Somebody Set Them Free Recently, I heard more elaborate quotations that included the above statement: If you love something, let it go. If it …
Continue reading “If You Love Someone, Set Them Free. If They Come Back They’re Yours”
Andy Warhol? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: The expression “fifteen minutes of fame” is based on a quotation by the influential Pop artist Andy Warhol. But what exactly did he say and when did he say it? Quote Investigator: Warhol’s notable maxim about the transience of fame has been popular for much longer than the standard …
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Albert Einstein? Samuel Johnson? Sophonisba Breckinridge? John Brunner? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: The depth and breadth of information available on the internet is wondrous. Here are three examples from a family of pertinent sayings I came across recently: 1) I don’t need to know everything; I just need to know where to find it, …
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Bertrand Russell? William James? Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.? Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.? Question for Quote Investigator: The eminent philosopher Bertrand Russell discussed visions and experiences in his major opus “A History of Western Philosophy” in 1945. Russell noted that subjective experiences were not always reliable: William James describes a man who got the experience from …
William James? Dorothy Parker? Ogden Nash? Mrs. Amos Pinchot? Alice Duer Miller? Apocryphal? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: I read a wild story about William James, the prominent psychologist, educator, and philosopher. One night he experimented with the psychoactive gas nitrous oxide, commonly known as laughing gas. While experiencing a reverie James became convinced that he …
Continue reading “Hogamous, Higamous, Man is Polygamous, Higamous, Hogamous, Woman is Monagamous”
George Bernard Shaw? Winston Churchill? Randolph Churchill? Noel Coward? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: The sharpest example of repartee that I have ever heard about was a famous exchange between George Bernard Shaw and Winston Churchill about a pair of tickets to a play. Shaw: I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my …
Continue reading “Here are Two Tickets for the Opening of My Play. Bring a Friend—If You Have One”
Mark Twain? Heinrich Heine? Otto von Bismarck? George Bernard Shaw? James Boswell? Will Rogers? Dear Quote Investigator: As a one-time resident of Cincinnati I knew that Mark Twain once worked in the city, and I always enjoyed the comment he reportedly made about it: When the end of the world comes, I want to be …
Ulysses S. Grant? Rutherford B. Hayes? Howard Pew? George Peck? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: A quotation about the telephone has been in the news recently because it was used in a speech by U.S. President Barack Obama. A widely-distributed anecdote asserted that Rutherford B. Hayes participated in a demonstration of the telephone when it was …
Continue reading “Great Invention, But Who Would Ever Want to Use One?”
Samuel Goldwyn? Ezra Goodman? Robert Gessner? Dear Quote Investigator: The supply of comical lines credited to the Hollywood chief Samuel Goldwyn seems endless. Here is one that I love: I don’t think anyone should write their autobiography until after they’re dead. But I have become rather skeptical of these jokes because no one seems to …
Continue reading ““Will You Write an Autobiography?” “Not Until Long After I’m Dead””