Tracing Quotations
Carl Sandburg? Alan Dershowitz? Jerome Michael? Jacob J. Rosenblum? Oliver Wendell Holmes? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: A few years ago I saw a famous quotation about legal strategy attributed to a celebrity professor: Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz shares with his students a strategy for successfully defending cases. If the facts are on …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Legal Advice: Pound the Facts, Pound the Law, Pound the Table”
Plato? Philo of Alexandria? Ian MacLaren? John Watson? This blog post is based on a question that was posed at the wonderful blog used by the quotation expert Fred Shapiro who is the editor of one of the best reference works in this area: The Yale Book of Quotations. Fred Shapiro’s posts appear on the …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Be Kind; Everyone You Meet is Fighting a Hard Battle”
Mark Twain? Nyrum Reynolds? Hiram Runnels? Andrew Jackson? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: I sometimes have difficulty spelling words correctly. But I take comfort in the magnificent statement attributed to Mark Twain: I don’t give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way. Actually, I used to take comfort in …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: No Respect for a Man Who Can Spell a Word Only One Way”
Charles Darwin? J.B.S. Haldane? Stephen Gould? Apocryphal? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: I have been studying rain forests and came across the following passage in a New York Times article: Charles Darwin surmised that the Creator must be inordinately fond of beetles: the earth is home to some 30 million different species of them. The …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: The Creator Has an Inordinate Fondness for Beetles”
Thomas Friedman? Lawrence Summers? Jack Kemp? Bill Creech? Aircraft Maintenance Chief? Thomas Peters? Nancy Austin? Question for Quote Investigator: New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman has used the following catch phrase several times: No one washes a rented car. I think this saying encapsulates an important idea. There is little incentive to wash or maintain …
John Adams? Tobias Smollett? Alain-René Lesage? Question for Quote Investigator: In class last year we studied the Boston Massacre and our history book said that John Adams, who later became the second President of the United States, defended the soldiers who shot and killed the protesters. During the defense Adams used the famous phrase: Facts …
Omar Bradley? Albert Einstein? Young Army Lieutenant? Walter Winchell? Joe Laitin? James W. Fulbright? Question for Quote Investigator: There is a great quotation about the type of weapons that will be used in World War IV. The words are both funny and chilling, and every time I have seen the saying it has been attributed …
John Lennon? Bertrand Russell? Laurence J. Peter? Marthe Troly-Curtin? Question for Quote Investigator: I like to enjoy life and sometimes I am criticized for spending too much time on amusements and diversions. My favorite response is attributed to the legendary free-spirit John Lennon: Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time. An acquaintance told me …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Time You Enjoy Wasting Is Not Wasted Time”
Mark Twain? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: I have to present a speech soon, and I would like to use a quotation attributed to Mark Twain: It usually takes more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech. The intended audience has the background to know that impromptu means without planning or preparation, and …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Three Weeks to Prepare a Good Impromptu Speech”
Abraham Lincoln? Ambrose Burnside? Charles Fair? Question for Quote Investigator: One of the worst military strategists in history was a Civil War general named Ambrose Burnside (sideburns are named after his whiskers). After a military fiasco called the Battle of the Crater, Abraham Lincoln relieved him of command and supposedly said: Only Burnside could have …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Defeat from the Jaws of Victory”