Tracing Quotations
Henry Ford? Edward Menge? Lewis Mumford? Sedgewick Seti? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The preeminent automotive industrialist Henry Ford is credited with a saying that has become very popular in the business literature. Here are two versions: But I can find no good evidence that Ford ever said this. It’s a great line, and I …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: My Customers Would Have Asked For a Faster Horse”
Foster C. McClellan? Robert M. Hutchins? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Since you are a sleuth for origin histories I’m wondering if you’ve ever come across this quote or any references to its origins: Education is not to reform students or amuse them or to make them expert technicians. It is to unsettle their minds, …
John Maynard Keynes? Paul Samuelson? Winston Churchill? Joan Robinson? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: John Maynard Keynes was an enormously influential economist, but some of his detractors complained that the opinions he expressed tended to change over the years. Once during a high-profile government hearing a critic accused him of being inconsistent, and Keynes reportedly …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: When the Facts Change, I Change My Mind. What Do You Do, Sir?”
Mark Twain? Ben Wade? Emery A. Storrs? James Matthew Barrie? Robert Burton? Question for Quote Investigator: There is a well-known quotation about heaven and hell that is usually credited to Mark Twain. I have found it phrased in different ways: My friend is adamant that the quotation was really created by James M. Barrie, the …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Heaven for the Climate, and Hell for the Company”
Charlie Chaplin? Steve Martin? Groucho Marx? Nicolas Chamfort? Question for Quote Investigator: The following guideline for living makes sense to me, so I try to find humor in something every day: A day without laughter is a day wasted When I read this maxim originally it was credited to Charlie Chaplin, but I once heard …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: A Day Without Laughter Is a Day Wasted”
Yogi Berra? Bucky Harris? Eddie Froelich? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The New York Times magazine recently highlighted a quotation from a Hall of Fame baseball player: “How can you think and hit at the same time?” Yogi Berra once said, which like many of the quotes attributed to the former Yankees catcher, even the …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: You Can’t Think and Hit at the Same Time”
Warren Buffett? Michael Wolff? Amarillo Slim? Poker Proverb? Whispering Saul? Question for 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 …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Look Around the Poker Table; If You Can’t See the Sucker, You’re It”
Frank Zappa? Apocryphal? Question for 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 …
John Quincy Adams? Dolly Parton? Peyton Manning? Anonymous? Question for 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 …
Dorothy Parker? Clare Boothe Luce? Sheilah Graham? Snooty debutante? Little chorus girl? Question for 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 …
Continue reading “Dialogue Origin: “Age Before Beauty” “Pearls Before Swine””