Tracing Quotations
Robin Williams? Charlie Fleischer? Paul Krassner? Paul Kantner? Grace Slick? Dear Quotation Investigator: I lived through the 1960s, but the only thing I remember about it is the following quotation: If you can remember the 1960s, you weren’t really there. Does anyone recall who said this? Quote Investigator: Yes, many people think they remember who …
Continue reading “If You Remember the ’60s, You Really Weren’t There”
Jascha Heifetz? Arthur Rubinstein? Generic Maestro? Dear Quote Investigator: How old is that classic joke about one of New York City’s landmark venues? How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice. Quote Investigator: Tracing jokes can be difficult because they can be told in so many ways. Etymologist Barry Popik is one of …
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Albert Einstein? Frederick S. Perls? Anonymous? A Great Astronomer? Dear Quote Investigator: I saw a comic strip titled “Baby Einstein” that contained three quotations that are usually attributed to Einstein. Are these quotes accurate? I am particularly interested in the second quotation: Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I’m not sure …
Continue reading “Two Things Are Infinite: the Universe and Human Stupidity”
Groucho Marx? Anthony Oettinger? Susumu Kuno? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: The simile “Time flies like an arrow” compares the rapidity of the passage of time to the quickness of a darting arrow. However, there exist alternative interpretations of the phrase. Here are two possibilities: (1) A particular type of flies called “time flies” are …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Time Flies Like an Arrow; Fruit Flies Like a Banana”
Gary Cooper? Lee Neuwirth? Henry Miller? Moses Hadas? Dear Quotation Investigator: I was told that a prominent journal editor would sometimes write a rejection letter to an author that said his or her “paper fills a much-needed gap”. Is this true? QI: This post continues the investigation of the phrase “much needed gap”, restarting in …
Continue reading “This Post Fills a Much-Needed Gap – Part 02”
Dear Quotation Investigator: I once read that the funniest book review ever written begins with the sentence: “This book fills a much-needed gap”. Does this book review actually exist? QI: Remarkably, the phrase mentioned does appear in many book reviews and other evaluations. For years writers have been incongruously eager to praise the filling of …
Continue reading “This Post Fills a Much-Needed Gap – Part 01”
Dear Quote Investigator: There is a great quote by Plato or Socrates about the misbehavior of children in antiquity that I read in the New York Times. The quote shows that the problems between generations are not just a recent occurrence. Instead, the conflicts between parents and offspring are timeless [NY8]: The children now love …
Charles Dickens? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: In a book on corporate communications I read a quote that supposedly was said by Dickens:[1] 2007, Essentials of Corporate Communication by C. B. M. van Riel and Charles J. Fombrun, Page 181, Routledge. (Google Books limited view) link Electric communication will never be a substitute for the face …
Mark Twain? Charles Dudley Warner? Dear Quote Investigator: There is a classic Mark Twain quotation about the weather that I have used for years. Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it. However, recently I visited the Bartleby website and discovered that the reference work Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations says …
Continue reading “Everybody Talks About the Weather, But Nobody Does Anything About It.”
Have you ever enjoyed reading or hearing a clever quotation? Have you ever repeated the quote along with the attribution but wondered if the information was accurate? This blog tries to track down correct information about the provenance of sayings by utilizing the massive text databases that are being constructed right now along with other …