Tracing Quotations
Raymond Chandler? Philip Marlowe? Dorothy Gardiner? Kathrine Sorley Walker? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A famous author of noir detective fiction was irritated that interviewers often thought that his veridical life should be similar to the life of his hardboiled fictional private eye. Apparently, some journalists wanted to know whether the author carried a Luger, …
Continue reading “My Favorite Weapon Is a Twenty Dollar Bill”
Peter De Vries? Laurence J. Peter? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Do you know who is responsible for crafting the following vivid and humorous simile?: They made love as though they were an endangered species. Is this the correct phrasing? I do not know whether such lovemaking would be celebratory, frenetic, fatalistic, or hopeless. Reply …
Continue reading “Making Love As Though We’re an Endangered Species”
Gertrude Stein? Ernest Hemingway? Hotel Keeper? Automobile Repair Shop Owner? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Would you please explore the provenance of the following expression? Here are two versions: You are all a lost generation. You are all a génération perdue. The phrase “lost generation” has been applied to young people who experienced the repercussions …
Michael Faraday? Henry Bence Jones? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A dogmatic or inflexible certitude leads to errors. When one is certain of being right one is almost sure to be wrong. The famous English physicist and chemist Michael Faraday said something like that. Would you please help me to find his exact phrasing and …
Continue reading “The Man Who Is Certain He Is Right Is Almost Sure To Be Wrong”
Mark Twain? Dwight D. Eisenhower? Arthur G. Lewis? Clarence Edmundson? Bear Bryant? Harry Howell? Samuel B. Pettengill? Woody Hayes? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: When there is a conflict between two entities an observer naturally expects the larger one to prevail, but sometimes the determination and grit of the smaller one produces an upset victory. …
Continue reading “It’s Not the Size of the Dog in the Fight, It’s the Size of the Fight in the Dog”
John Rupert Firth? Melanie Mitchell? Ludwig Wittgenstein? A. H. Schutz? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A dictionary defines the meaning of a word by using a sequence of other words. Occasionally, a definition employs a picture. Linguists and artificial intelligence researchers have suggested that the denotations and connotations of a word emerge via an examination …
Continue reading “You Shall Know a Word by the Company It Keeps”
Albert Einstein? Karl Popper? Adolf von Harnack? Agnes von Zahn-Harnack? Dorothy Kilgallen? Jules C. Stein? David Deutsch? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Solving difficult problems often requires sketching out preliminary ideas on paper with a pen or pencil. The paper functions as an extension of human memory, and a scratchpad for developing thoughts. A famous …
Continue reading “My Pencil and I Are More Clever Than I Am”
H.L. Mencken? Gerald W. Johnson? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Oppressive laws are sometimes promulgated to target unsavory individuals. The opposition to these laws requires defending these individuals. The famous Baltimore journalist and commentator H. L. Mencken apparently said something like the following: The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most …
Winston Churchill? Martin Routh? John Burgon? G. W. Peck? Earl of Rosebery? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: According to a legend of academia, a young student once asked an illustrious professor to impart his greatest piece of wisdom, and the sage replied with one of these statements: (1) Always verify your quotations. (2) Always check your …
Mark Twain? Arthur T. Pierson? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: To experience a joyful event completely one should share it with others. I think Mark Twain made a point similar to this in his collection of sayings called “Pudd’nhead Wilson’s New Calendar”. Would you please help me to find a citation? Quote Investigator: In 1897 Mark …
Continue reading “To Get the Full Value of a Joy You Must Have Somebody To Divide It With”