Mark Twain? James Montgomery Flagg? William Dean Howells? Dear Quote Investigator: When I discovered your blog I knew just the right word to describe it: Quotesmanship. That word was used in the New York Times in 1980 to describe the desire to determine and use correct attributions for quotations [NYQM]. The author of the Quotesmanship …
Author Archives: quoteresearch
Legend: The Vanishing Lady and the Vanishing Hotel Room
Alexander Woollcott? Karl Harriman? Marie Belloc-Lowndes? Nancy Vincent McClelland? Kenneth Herford? Dear Quote Investigator: I recently watched an excellent British film from the 1950s called “So Long at the Fair” and was fascinated by the plot [SLW] [SLI]. When I searched the net I discovered that I was not the only person intrigued by the …
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Beneath the Phony Tinsel of Hollywood You’ll Find the Real Tinsel
Oscar Levant? Ed Gardner? Henry Morgan? Dear Quote Investigator: Every time I hear Hollywood referred to as Tinseltown it reminds me of the following quote: Strip away the phony tinsel of Hollywood and you find the real tinsel underneath. I have read this phrase in several places but was unsure who first created it. The …
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When I Want to Read a Book, I Write One
Benjamin Disraeli? Washington Irving? Dear Quote Investigator: Recently, I was reading the top-selling book “The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable” and encountered this sentence:[1] 2007, “The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable” by Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Page 95, Random House, New York. (Verified with Amazon Look Inside) Nero did not …
Outside of a Dog, a Book is Man’s Best Friend. Inside of a Dog, It’s Too Dark to Read
Groucho Marx? Ted Atkinson? Jimmy Husson? Jim Brewer ? Mary Stuart? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: You have researched some quotes credited to Groucho Marx, so I am hoping that you will be able to look into a saying that interests me. I work in a library and have long enjoyed the following quip: Outside of …
Quote Origin: And the Sea Will Grant Each Man New Hope, As Sleep Brings Dreams of Home
Christopher Columbus? Larry Ferguson? John McTiernan? Question for Quote Investigator: “The Hunt for Red October” was a popular action-adventure movie featuring submarine warfare released in 1990. The movie ends with a poignant quotation attributed to Christopher Columbus that was delivered by the movie star Sean Connery. Captain Marko Ramius played by Connery was about to …
How Could I Feel Like a Hero When Only Five Men in My Platoon of 45 Survived?
Ira Hayes? James Bradley? John Bradley? Rene Gagnon? Fictionalized? Dear Quote Investigator: One of the men who appeared in the famous flag-raising photograph taken on Iwo Jima during WWII was invited to the White House when he returned to the United States. The following 2005 news article describes a heart-rending comment that was supposedly said …
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A Master in the Art of Living Makes Little Distinction Between His Work and His Play
James Michener? Zen Buddhist saying? L.P. Jacks? Dear Quote Investigator: I have been deeply moved by an inspirational passage that I thought was written by a Zen Buddhist master: The master in the art of living makes little distinction between his work and his play, his labor and his leisure, his mind and his body, …
I was the Toast of Two Continents: Greenland and Australia
Dorothy Parker? Robert Benchley? Frank Sullivan? Dear Quote Investigator: The writer Dorothy Parker was famous for her clever and barbed witticisms. Her remarks were often aimed at others, but sometimes she laughed at herself with a self-deprecating comment. I particularly enjoy the statement she made when asked about her fame: Yes, I once was the …
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The Harder I Practice, the Luckier I Get
Gary Player? Arnold Palmer? Jerry Barber? Jack Youngblood? Lee Trevino? Ethel Merman? L. Frank Baum? Dear Quote Investigator: I am a fan of the golfing legend Gary Player, and the Wikipedia article about him says he: “Coined one of the most quoted aphorisms of post-War sport”: The harder you practice, the luckier you get. Is …