Tracing Quotations
Jack London? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: I belong to a great group for writers in Florida, and a recent announcement message on our mailing list included a motivational quotation attributed to the author and journalist Jack London: You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club. Since London died …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: You Can’t Wait for Inspiration. You Have To Go After It With a Club”
Peter De Vries? Philip Larkin? C. E. Lombardi? Larry Gelbart? Avi’s Young Reader? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: When faced with the difficult task of writing effectively some people insist on a guaranteed formula. As a confirmed scribbler I am convinced that there is no formula, but I laughed when I heard this: A story …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: A Story Should Have a Beginning, a Muddle and an End”
Thomas Wolfe? Red Smith? Paul Gallico? Friedrich Nietzsche? Ernest Hemingway? Gene Fowler? Jeff MacNelly? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Whenever I have trouble writing I am reminded of a family of sayings which employ a gruesomely expressive metaphor to describe the difficult process of composition. Here are three instances: (1) Writing is easy. You just …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Writing Is Easy; You Just Open a Vein and Bleed”
Bill Gates? James E. Fawcette? Nancy Andrews? Jerry Pournelle? InfoWorld? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Bill Gates is the one of the richest men in the world, but that does not mean that he correctly foresaw the future. In the early days of the personal computer industry Gates supposedly said the following about the IBM …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Computer Memory: 640K Ought to be Enough for Anyone”
Albert Einstein? William Bruce Cameron? Hilliard Jason? Stephen Ross? Lord Platt? George Pickering? Quote Investigator: QI has updated the entry about a popular quotation attributed to Einstein. The saying combines two distinct but related phrases: Not everything that can be counted counts.Not everything that counts can be counted. The entry now presents earlier evidence concerning …
Continue reading “Update: Not Everything That Counts Can be Counted”
Charles Kingsford-Smith? Ernest K. Gann? TWA Captain? Yachtsman? Apocryphal? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: In the aviation world there is an axiom that avers: The only time an aircraft has too much fuel on board is when it is on fire. This pearl of wisdom is commonly attributed to the pioneer Australian aviator Sir Charles …
World War I? World War II? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Years ago some military orders had to be sent via a series of radio relays. Each radio operator would listen to a command and then repeat it to the next operator in a series. If you have ever played the game “broken telephone” or …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Military Command: Send Three and Fourpence. We’re Going to a Dance”
Carl Gustav Jung? John William Gardner? A Wise Man? My Friend’s Pillow? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: I run a daily email quote list, and I try to do a quick Google search to see if I’ve got the correct attribution. I came across your site and thank you for the help. Here is a …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Creative Minds Are Rarely Tidy”
Oscar Wilde? Irishmen? Australian? Scot? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The prominent English actor and author Stephen Fry once said something about Oscar Wilde that I found fascinating: Oscar Wilde, and there have been few greater and more complete lords of language in the past thousand years, once included with a manuscript he was delivering …
Winston Churchill? W. C. Fields? Mr. Robinson? Dr. Tanner? Apocryphal? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: There is a famous anecdote featuring Winston Churchill and the British politician Bessie Braddock that might be fictional. Supposedly Braddock encountered an intoxicated Churchill, and she expressed her displeasure. The rejoinder was harsh: “Sir, you are drunk.” “And you, Bessie, …