Tracing Quotations
Warren Buffett? Michael Wolff? Amarillo Slim? Poker Proverb? Whispering Saul? Dear Quote Investigator: There is a quotation I have seen in several books and periodicals aimed at investors. Here is one version: If you have been in a poker game for a while, and you still don’t know who the patsy is, you’re the patsy. …
Continue reading “Look Around the Poker Table; If You Can’t See the Sucker, You’re It”
Frank Zappa? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: The most outrageously funny quotation that I know of was spoken by the musician Frank Zappa: Rock journalism is people who can’t write interviewing people who can’t talk for people who can’t read. The perfect place to say this would have been during an interview with Rolling Stone magazine. …
John Quincy Adams? Dolly Parton? Peyton Manning? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: The following quote about leadership appears on my son’s T-Shirt and all over the web, attributed to John Quincy Adams: If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader. That can’t possibly be right, …
Dorothy Parker? Clare Boothe Luce? Sheilah Graham? Snooty debutante? Little chorus girl? Dear Quote Investigator: I think Dorothy Parker should be credited with the wittiest comeback ever spoken. She was attempting to go through a doorway at the same time as another person and words were exchanged. According to the story I heard the other …
Continue reading ““Age Before Beauty.” “Pearls Before Swine.””
Edgar Guest? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: When I was a child I found a book at my public library, a collection of poetry. My favorite poem in it was entitled “Cherry Pie” and was (I thought) by Edgar Guest. Since those days I have tried to relocate the work but with no luck. I remember …
Continue reading “As I Wend My Way to Heaven I’ll Be Full of Cherry Pie”
Oscar Wilde? William Collier? Daniel Frohman? George Bernard Shaw? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: I have been involved in several theatrical productions and sometimes the response of an audience to a show is mystifying. A colleague told me that Oscar Wilde watched an early performance of Lady Windermere’s Fan, and the reception was unenthusiastic. Later when …
Continue reading “The Play Was a Great Success, But the Audience Was a Total Failure”
Albert Einstein? Louis Zukofsky? Roger Sessions? William of Ockham? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: The credibility of a quotation is increased substantially if it can be ascribed to a widely-recognized genius such as Albert Einstein. Hence a large number of spurious quotes are attributed to him. I would like to know if the following is a …
Continue reading “Everything Should Be Made as Simple as Possible, But Not Simpler”
Mark Twain? James Wayle? Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar? Walter Winchell? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: In the past few days several phony quotations were widely disseminated on the internet; in other words, they went viral. My question is about a saying that might be genuine. A CNN article contains the following expression attributed to Mark Twain: I …
Continue reading “I Did Not Attend the Funeral, But I Sent a Nice Letter Saying I Approved of It”
Mark Twain? Clarence Darrow? Overland Monthly? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: I saw the quotation below when it was tweeted a few days ago. It was credited to Mark Twain, but apparently he never said it: I’ve never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure. Later I read news …
Frank Lloyd Wright? Herbert Hoover? Arch Oboler? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: When I was a child I saw a gallery of images showing a house built at the top of a waterfall. I fell in love with that house, called Fallingwater, and later learned that it was built by the extraordinary American architect Frank Lloyd …
Continue reading “The Architect Can Only Advise His Client to Plant Vines”