Herbert Marcuse? Bryan Magee? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: It is tempting to view the world through the prism of an all-encompassing sociocultural stance, e.g., Marxism, Freudianism, or existentialism. However, this distorted vision reduces one’s life to a didactic parable. Here is a humorous remark about this obsessive reductionism: Not every problem someone has with …
Author Archives: quoteresearch
Quote Origin: Kennedy Didn’t Beat Nixon. Satire Beat Nixon
Chris Rock? Michael Cavna? Garry Trudeau? David Frost? Aaron McGruder? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Satire can puncture pomposity and direct laughter at the powerful. The results of U.S. presidential elections have been swayed by satire. The 1960 contest between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon was close. The barbs directed at Nixon were effective …
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Quote Origin: No Generalization Is Wholly True—Not Even This One
Mark Twain? Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.? Alexandre Dumas fils? Lady Mary Wortley Montagu? Ellen Osborn? Manley H. Pike? Ben Johnson? Benjamin Disraeli? Alexander Chase? Roger O’Mara? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Making sweeping statements about the universe is difficult to resist, but exceptions seem to be unavoidable. The following comically paradoxical statement is popular. Here …
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Quote Origin: A Diplomat Is a Person Who Always Remembers a Woman’s Birthday But Never Remembers Her Age
Robert Frost? Lillian Russell? Fliegende Blätter? Evan Esar? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: An old-fashioned quip about vanity and aging states that a diplomat always remembers a person’s birthday but never remembers a person’s age. This joke has been attributed to the famous U.S. poet Robert Frost, but I have been unable to find a …
Quote Origin: Writing and Rewriting Are a Constant Search for What It Is One Is Saying
John Updike? William W. West? Donald M. Murray? Catherine Ann Jones? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: An accomplished writer must constantly grapple with the difficulties of expressing events and ideas cogently with polish and precision. A famous prose stylist once illuminated the purpose of rewriting. Here are three versions: (1) Writing and rewriting are a …
Quote Origin: You Could Compile the Worst Book in the World Entirely Out of Selecting Passages from the Best Writers in the World
G. K. Chesterton? Charles Poore? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Even the best writers occasionally pen passages of execrable prose. Apparently, a prominent author once made the following observation: You could compile the worst book in the world entirely out of selected passages from the best writers in the world. Would you please help me …
Quote Origin: The Ideals Which Have Always Shone Before Me and Filled Me With the Joy of Living Are Goodness, Beauty, and Truth
Albert Einstein? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Albert Einstein once spoke about his ideals which apparently included goodness, beauty, and truth. Would you please help me to find a citation? Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1930 the journal “Forum and Century” published a philosophical article by Albert Einstein titled “What I Believe”. Boldface added to …
Dialogue Origin: “I Could Have Done That” “Ahhh, But You Didn’t!”
Damien Hirst? Christo Javacheff? Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon? William Quinn? Elizabeth Marr Goldman? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Harsh critics of readymade art, installation art, and other forms of modern art assert that the works are trivial. Skeptics also claim that only a miniscule amount of serious effort is required to conceive this type of …
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Quote Origin: Those Big-Shot Writers Could Never Dig the Fact That There Are More Salted Peanuts Consumed Than Caviar
Mickey Spillane? Hy Gardner? Frank Smikel? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Popular writers endure a litany of complaints directed at their prose, e.g., mediocre, clumsy, crude, uninteresting, and undemanding. A bestselling writer once employed a clever analogy to explain this antagonism. The writer contended that literary darlings were trying to market caviar, whereas popular writers …
Quote Origin: The Past Is History. The Future Is a Mystery. Today Is a Gift. That’s Why It’s Called the Present
Eleanor Roosevelt? Barbara De Angelis? Joan Rivers? Bill Keane? Emily Dickinson? Liz Curtis Higgs? Babatunde Olatunji? Susan Barkdoll? Nicholas L. Santowassa? Abigail Van Buren? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: A rhyming series of statements highlight the uncertainty of the future and the desirability of appreciating the present. Here are two versions: (1) The past is …