Tracing Quotations
Andy Warhol? Apocryphal? Question for 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? Reply from Quote Investigator: Warhol’s notable maxim about the transience of fame has been popular for much longer …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: In the Future Everyone Will Be Famous for 15 Minutes”
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, …
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? Question for 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 …
George Bernard Shaw? Winston Churchill? Randolph Churchill? Noel Coward? Apocryphal? Question for 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 …
Mark Twain? Heinrich Heine? Otto von Bismarck? George Bernard Shaw? James Boswell? Will Rogers? Question for 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 …
Ulysses S. Grant? Rutherford B. Hayes? Howard Pew? George Peck? Apocryphal? Question for 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 …
Samuel Goldwyn? Ezra Goodman? Robert Gessner? Question for 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 …
Cary Grant? Mary Astor? Hugh O’Brian? Tige Andrews? Herb Caen? Danny Doakes? Herschel Bernardi? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: I read an article last year about celebrity lookalikes that discussed the different stages of a Hollywood career. I remember a few of the stages: Get me John/Jane Smith.Get me someone who looks like John/Jane Smith.Who …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: The Five Stages of an Actor’s Career”
J. K. Rowling? Lord Chesterfield? Sirius Black? Charles Bayard Miliken? M. C. B. Mason? Question for Quote Investigator: My favorite quotation from the entire Harry Potter series was the brilliantly insightful remark spoken by the character Sirius Black: If you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats …