Tracing Quotations
Who Said It?: Samuel Goldwyn? Robert Benchley? Gracie Allen? Alva Johnston? Anonymous? Who or What Was Caustic?: The Little Foxes? Jim Tully? An Unnamed Actor? Mr. Rosenblatt? An Unnamed Script? An Unnamed Writer? Sidney Howard? Moss Hart? Question for Quote Investigator: An entertaining legend about the powerful movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn has been amusing people …
Continue reading “Dialogue Origin: “It’s Too Caustic” “To Hell With the Cost””
Dorothy Parker? W. Somerset Maugham? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Dorothy Parker was at a party where guests were challenging one another to complete poems based on a few starting lines, or so the story goes. Parker was given the following two lines: Higgledy Piggledy, my white hen; She lays eggs for gentlemen. After a …
Mark Twain? Robert Frost? Ambrose Bierce? Ben Bernanke? Philippe Girardet? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: It is remarkably difficult to obtain a loan in a difficult economic climate. This notion can be expressed with the following adage: A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining, but wants it …
H.L. Mencken? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The following saying is credited to H.L. Mencken on several websites, and I found it in some quotation dictionaries. But I cannot find it directly in any works written by Mencken. Could you tell me if the attribution is correct? The urge to save humanity is almost always …
Oscar Wilde? Augustine Birrell? Lewis Morris? Fictional? Question for Quote Investigator: There is a popular anecdote about Oscar Wilde that is very funny, but it is also implausible in my opinion. The story claims that Wilde was speaking with a terrible poet who had recently published a book of verse. The rhymer complained that no …
Ogden Nash? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Jeopardy is my favorite game show, and I recently watched in amazement as an IBM computer named Watson beat the two best human players in the history of the trivia tournament. I was reminded of the classic one-line observation made by the brilliantly humorous poet Ogden Nash: Progress …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Progress May Have Been All Right Once, But It Went On Too Long”
Eleanor Roosevelt? Reader’s Digest? Apocryphal? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: There is a remarkably insightful statement about self-esteem that is usually credited to Eleanor Roosevelt, the diplomat and former First Lady: No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. This is one of my favorite quotations, but I have not been able to …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: No One Can Make You Feel Inferior Without Your Consent”
George S. Kaufman? Eddie Fisher? Clifton Fadiman? Dick Cavett? Question for Quote Investigator: Many, many years ago I saw an old clip on TV of George S. Kaufman and he was replying to a question submitted by an audience member who was complaining. Kaufman was uninterested, and he replied with a lengthy comical remark. I …
Samuel Goldwyn? Roger Miller? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: I noticed that the Wikiquote website lists one of my favorite funny sayings attributed to Samuel Goldwyn, the famous film producer. In the version of the story I heard, a friend told Goldwyn that he wanted to honor the studio head by naming his son after …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Every Tom, Dick, and Harry is Named Sam”
Albert Einstein? Leo Mattersdorf? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: I have been struggling trying to figure out how much I owe to the Internal Revenue Service this year. The quote I would like you to explore does not sound very extraordinary. What makes it funny and outrageous is the identity of the person who supposedly …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: The Hardest Thing in the World to Understand Is Income Taxes”