Jim Carrey? Jay Stone? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A famous movie star once said that everyone should experience becoming rich and famous because it would be clear that wealth and fame are not the answer to life’s conundrums. Would you please explore this topic? Reply from Quote Investigator: In December 2005 Canadian actor and …
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Quote Origin: To Understand a Person You Have To Know What Was Happening in the World When That Person Was Twenty
Napoleon Bonaparte? G. M. Young? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: The years of early adulthood are crucial to the formation of an entire outlook toward life. You have to know what was happening in the world when a person was twenty to understand that person. This notion has been ascribed to the French military leader …
Quote Origin: When Everybody Thinks Alike, Nobody Will Think At All
George Patton? Benjamin Franklin? Walter Lippmann? John F. Kennedy? Sue Myrick? Edward Krehbiel? Jonathan P. Dolliver? Humphrey B. Neill? Eric Schmidt? Porter B. Williamson? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Conformity is a powerful force that narrows the thought patterns of groups and individuals. Here are three selections from a family of pertinent sayings: (1) Where …
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Quote Origin: Becoming Is Better Than Being
Carol Dweck? Paul Klee? Thomas Oliver? Martin Heidegger? Victor Branford? Sarah Frances Brown? Charles Hartshorne? Alfred North Whitehead? Question for Quote Investigator: When you are living a full life you are always changing and growing. You are not inert or stagnant. Here are two versions of a pertinent adage: (1) Becoming is better than being. …
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Quote Origin: In the Sublime War of Humanity Against Reality, Humanity Has But One Weapon, The Imagination
Lewis Carroll? Cheshire Cat? C. S. Lewis? Jules de Gaultier? Benjamin de Casseres? Percy Bysshe Shelley? Herbert Kaufman? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Reality can be cold and disheartening. Yet, humans have the extraordinary facility to imagine a different and more entertaining universe. Here are two versions of a pertinent saying: (1) Imagination is the …
Quote Origin: The Answer to Life, the Universe and Everything Is Forty-Two
Douglas Adams? Deep Thought? Geoffrey Hinton? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The number forty-two is sometimes presented as the answer to life’s deepest question. Where did this answer originate? Who suggested this eccentric and opaque answer? Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1978 BBC Radio 4 broadcast the science fiction comedy series “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to …
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Quote Origin: To Seek Happiness by Changing Anything But One’s Own Disposition Will Waste Life in Fruitless Efforts
Samuel Johnson? Noah Webster? Orison Swett Marden? Charles Caleb Colton? Tryon Edwards? Question for Quote Investigator: If one’s contentment depends upon external forces and events that one cannot control then one should expect continual heartache. Seeking happiness requires changing one’s own dispositions. This notion has been attributed to the famous English lexicographer Samuel Johnson, the …
Quote Origin: Don’t Cut Your Flowers and Water Your Weeds
Warren Buffett? Peter Lynch? Allan R. Stuart? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: When a stock in your portfolio goes up it is tempting to sell it and lock in profits. Also, when a stock is languishing it is natural to hold on to it with the hope that someday it will ascend. However, a vivid …
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Quote Origin: You Can Always Tell a Harvard / Yale Student, But You Can’t Tell Them Much
William Howard Taft? Arthur Twining Hadley? Zora Neale Hurston? James Barnes? Wigg? Wagg? LeBaron Russell Briggs? Joseph Choate? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: The rivalry between the universities Yale and Harvard exists in the domain of quips. The following jests use wordplay based on two different meanings of “tell”: (1) You always can tell a …
Quote Origin: When You’ve Exhausted All Possibilities, Remember This: You Haven’t!
Thomas Edison? Robert H. Schuller? Helen Peikin? Leslie Hanscom? Dale Carnegie? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: After exploring a series of ineffective solutions to a problem it is natural to give up hope. Yet, a popular motivational saying suggests that perseverance will be rewarded: When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: You haven’t. This …