Tracing Quotations
Carroll D. Wright? Mark Twain? Charles H. Grosvenor? James G. Blaine? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: I hope you will be able to settle a disagreement between friends concerning the following quotation: Figures don’t lie, but liars figure. My friend believes that this saying originated with Samuel Clemens otherwise known as Mark Twain. I think …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Figures Don’t Lie, But Liars Do Figure”
Laurie Anderson? Steve Martin? Frank Zappa? Martin Mull? Elvis Costello? Thelonius Monk? Question for Quote Investigator: I have a difficult riddle for you. A mailing list I belong to has discussed the following quotation several times during the past ten years, and the question of its origin has never been satisfactorily resolved. Writing about music …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Writing About Music is Like Dancing About Architecture”
Margaret Thatcher? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: I have been trying to learn about a statement supposedly said by Margaret Thatcher who was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom during the 1980s. The version I was told is: If you want a speech made you should ask a man, but if you want something …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: If You Want Anything Said Ask a Man, Want Anything Done Ask a Woman”
The blog entry for the saying “If You Steal From One Author, It’s Plagiarism; If You Steal From Many, It’s Research” has now been updated. The entry you are currently reading is a stub. Please visit the updated article.
Cary Grant? Gar Wood? Mark Clark? Tom Ferris? Question for Quote Investigator: I love the movies from the golden age of Hollywood. I think the stars were more glamorous in the past, and the stories about the stars were wittier. The quotation I would like you to investigate was reportedly written by Cary Grant for …
Continue reading “Dialogue Origin: “How Old Cary Grant?” “Old Cary Grant Fine, How You?””
Who Said the Quote: Dorothy Parker? Richard Henry Little? Alexander Woollcott? Who was the Polyglot: Winifred Stackville Stoner? Merle Oberon? Question for Quote Investigator: My question differs from most. Here is a quotation of admiration with a stinger that I would like you to investigate: That woman speaks eighteen languages, and can’t say “No” in …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: She Speaks Eighteen Languages, and Can’t Say “No” in Any of Them”
Peter O’Toole? Edmund Kean? Edmund Gwenn? Donald Crisp? George Seaton? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: One of my friends is an aspiring comedian, and he enjoys telling an anecdote about a gifted character actor who delivered a famously incisive line about playing comic roles while lying on his deathbed. A visitor approached the actor who …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Dying is Easy. Comedy is Hard”
Arthur F. Burns? William McChesney Martin? G. William Miller? Paul A. Volcker? Question for Quote Investigator: The U.S. economy has experienced two large bubbles in recent years in technology stocks and in real estate. These gyrations in the market reminded me of an old comment from a previous director of the Federal Reserve. He said …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: I Take the Punch Bowl Away Just When the Party is Getting Good”
Frank Herbert? Ray Bradbury? Theodore Sturgeon? Fred Pohl? Question for Quote Investigator: I once read an interview with a science fiction writer in which he was asked about predicting the future. The interviewer was disappointed that some of the technological developments heralded in science fiction never seemed to actually happen. The response from the author …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: I Do Not Want to Predict the Future. I Want to Prevent It”
Jimmy Durante? Wilson Mizner? Walter Winchell? George Raft? Question for Quote Investigator: Sometimes clichés become clichés because they express important truths. I think this is an example: Be nice to those you meet on the way up because you will meet them on the way down Can you determine who first came up with this …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Be Nice to People on Your Way Up. You’ll Meet Them On Your Way Down”