Quote Origin: Time Flies Like an Arrow; Fruit Flies Like a Banana

Groucho Marx? Anthony Oettinger? Susumu Kuno? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: The simile “Time flies like an arrow” compares the rapidity of the passage of time to the quickness of a darting arrow. However, there exist alternative interpretations of the phrase. Here are two possibilities: (1) A particular type of flies called “time flies” are …

This Post Fills a Much-Needed Gap – Part 02

Gary Cooper? Lee Neuwirth? Henry Miller? Moses Hadas? Dear Quotation Investigator: I was told that a prominent journal editor would sometimes write a rejection letter to an author that said his or her “paper fills a much-needed gap”. Is this true? QI: This post continues the investigation of the phrase “much needed gap”, restarting in …

This Post Fills a Much-Needed Gap – Part 01

Dear Quotation Investigator: I once read that the funniest book review ever written begins with the sentence: “This book fills a much-needed gap”. Does this book review actually exist? QI: Remarkably, the phrase mentioned does appear in many book reviews and other evaluations. For years writers have been incongruously eager to praise the filling of …

Misbehaving Children in Ancient Times

Dear Quote Investigator: There is a great quote by Plato or Socrates about the misbehavior of children in antiquity that I read in the New York Times. The quote shows that the problems between generations are not just a recent occurrence. Instead, the conflicts between parents and offspring are timeless [NY8]: The children now love …

Quote Origin: Electronic Communication Will Never Be a Substitute for the Face of Someone Who With Their Soul Encourages

Charles Dickens? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: In a book on corporate communications I read a quote that supposedly was said by Dickens: Electric communication will never be a substitute for the face of someone who with their soul encourages another person to be brave and true. Charles Dickens I find this quote hard to …

Everybody Talks About the Weather, But Nobody Does Anything About It.

Mark Twain? Charles Dudley Warner? Dear Quote Investigator: There is a classic Mark Twain quotation about the weather that I have used for years. Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it. However, recently I visited the Bartleby website and discovered that the reference work Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations says …

A New Blog Exploring Quotations

Have you ever enjoyed reading or hearing a clever quotation? Have you ever repeated the quote along with the attribution but wondered if the information was accurate? This blog tries to track down correct information about the provenance of sayings by utilizing the massive text databases that are being constructed right now along with other …