Mark Twain? Clarence Darrow? Overland Monthly? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: I saw the quotation below when it was tweeted a few days ago. It was credited to Mark Twain, but apparently he never said it: I’ve never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure. Later I read news …
Author Archives: quoteresearch
Quote Origin: The Architect Can Only Advise His Client to Plant Vines
Frank Lloyd Wright? Herbert Hoover? Arch Oboler? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: When I was a child I saw a gallery of images showing a house built at the top of a waterfall. I fell in love with that house, called Fallingwater, and later learned that it was built by the extraordinary American architect Frank …
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Quote Origin: See the Happy Moron
Dorothy Parker? James Webb Young? Owen H. Hott? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: A friend and I recently wondered about the origin of the following poem. We did not have much luck tracking it: See the happy moron, He doesn’t give a damn, I wish I were a moron, My God! perhaps I am! There …
Quote Origin: She Was a Sinking Vessel with No Freight to Throw Overboard
Mark Twain? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: I have heard the following quote attributed to Mark Twain: A man who doesn’t smoke is like a sinking ship with no rats to desert it. I am skeptical. Would you please explore the provenance of this expression? Reply from Quote Investigator: QI has been unable to locate …
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Quote Origin: French Have Taken Umbrage. English Have Taken Cognizance.
Who was fighting? Russians? French? Zulus? English? Prussians? Boers? Question for Quote Investigator: When I worked on a student newspaper in college I was told a story about a late night editor at a major newspaper who received a terse wire report saying the “Russians Have Taken Umbrage”. The editor did not know the meaning …
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Quote Origin: Venice Streets Are Full of Water. Please Advise
Robert Benchley? Mattie Barwick? David Niven? Question for Quote Investigator: You might enjoy looking into this confusing question. I have been searching newspaper databases for a project involving the Venice canals. The following humorous note appeared in a newspaper called the Miami News on October 30, 1958: Word comes from European traveler, Mattie (Mrs. George) …
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Quote Origin: I Don’t Want to Belong to Any Club That Will Accept Me as a Member
Friars Club? Delaney Club? Beverly Hills Tennis Club? Hillcrest Country Club? Question for Quote Investigator: There is a wonderful story about Groucho Marx and an elite private club. I have heard so many variants of this tale that I was hoping you would investigate. In one version Groucho resigns from a club, and in another …
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Quote Origin: Taxes: This is a Question Too Difficult for a Mathematician
Albert Einstein? Associated Press? Time magazine? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: You recently discussed one quotation by Albert Einstein about taxes, but my question is about another remark attributed to the genius. The Canadian newspaper “Globe and Mail” published the following earlier this year: Albert Einstein said of his tax return, “This is too difficult …
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Dialogue Origin: “It’s Too Caustic” “To Hell With the Cost”
Who Said It?: Samuel Goldwyn? Robert Benchley? Gracie Allen? Alva Johnston? Anonymous? Who or What Was Caustic?: The Little Foxes? Jim Tully? An Unnamed Actor? Mr. Rosenblatt? An Unnamed Script? An Unnamed Writer? Sidney Howard? Moss Hart? Question for Quote Investigator: An entertaining legend about the powerful movie mogul Samuel Goldwyn has been amusing people …
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Quote Origin: You Cannot Persuade Her with Gun or Lariat, To Come Across for the Proletariat
Dorothy Parker? W. Somerset Maugham? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Dorothy Parker was at a party where guests were challenging one another to complete poems based on a few starting lines, or so the story goes. Parker was given the following two lines: Higgledy Piggledy, my white hen; She lays eggs for gentlemen. After a …