Tracing Quotations
Evan Esar? Jacob M. Braude? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: You have already explored a quip about success and work that cleverly referred to their alphabetical order. I’ve seen a similar joke about divorce and marriage: The dictionary is the only place where divorce comes before marriage. Which of these two jests emerged first? Would …
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Mae West? Jack Wagner? Joe E. Lewis? Charley Weaver? Cliff Arquette? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: The Hollywood screen siren Mae West once verbally lacerated the villain of a movie by saying that when he was born his mother should have kept the stork and disposed of him. Would you please help me to determine …
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Brendan Francis? Edward F. Murphy? Jonathon Green? Sherwin D. Smith? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: I came across the following quotation in the 1978 reference “The Crown Treasury of Relevant Quotations” compiled by Edward F. Murphy: A quotation in a speech, article or book is like a rifle in the hands of an infantryman. It …
Mark Twain? Oscar Wilde? Socrates? Nancy Weber? Judy Tillinger? Horace Porter? J. F. Carter? Gaius Petronius Arbiter? James Ogilvy? Thomas Paine? Voltaire? Richard A. Posner? Benjamin Franklin? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: The ancient Greek poet Hesiod stated: Observe due measure; moderation is best in all things. An extended version of this statement has been …
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Carrie Fisher? Courtney Love? Edward Dowling? Mariette Hartley? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Terrible experiences often cause an individual to seek a superior pathway through life. Here is a pertinent adage: Some of us can’t find heaven without backing away from hell. This saying has been attributed to actress and writer Carrie Fisher and to …
Alfred Henry Lewis? Larry Niven? Jerry Pournelle? Eric Sevareid? George Allan England? Donald Lowrie? John J. Fitzgerald? Hiram Motherwell? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: When the food supplies of a society are disrupted it takes only a few days before extreme behaviors emerge, e.g., chaos, mayhem, and rebellion. An adage states that: There are only …
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Charles Sidney Burwell? Charles F. Kettering? Helen Clapesattle? Carl Sandburg? Camille Pierre Dadant? Josh Billings? William Osler? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator Educators and researchers know that knowledge in fields like science and medicine is continuously growing and changing. Thus, today’s verities become tomorrow’s fallacies. A lecturer once candidly admitted these weaknesses by saying something …
Voltaire? George Burns? Paul Harvey? Stanisław Jerzy Lec? Percy Bysshe Shelley? Etaislaw Lee? Stanisław Leszczyński? Stanisław Lem? Jacek Galazka? Dear Quote Investigator: A mob or a mass movement can cause enormous destruction. Also, the inaction of a large apathetic group in a perilous time can lead to ruination. Yet, individuals disavow liability. Here are three …
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Henry Austin? Henry Austen? Robert Burns Wilson? C. C. Cameron? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: A poem about tenacity begins with the following four lines: Genius, that power which dazzles mortal eyes, Is oft but perseverance in disguise. Continuous effort, of itself, implies, In spite of countless falls, the power to rise. This verse has been …
Elbert Hubbard? Robert Burns Wilson? Dale Carnegie? Kin Hubbard? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: A short motivational piece of about 130 words begins with the following sentence: “Genius is really only the power of making continuous efforts.” The piece has been attributed to aphorist Elbert Hubbard and poet Robert Burns Wilson. Would you please explore this …
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