Tracing Quotations
Dorothy Parker? Franklin Pierce Adams? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The famous wit Dorothy Parker once penned an entertaining poem which rhymed “Romania” and “extemporanea”. Would you please help me to find a citation for this poem? Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1926 Dorothy Parker published the poetry collection “Enough Rope”. The rhyme was contained …
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Laura Ingalls Wilder? Melissa Gilbert? Michael Landon? John Hawkins? William Putman? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A comfortable and welcoming home is one of life’s greatest boons. The following remark resonates with people who have an enjoyable domestic life: Home is the nicest word there is. This statement is usually attributed to U.S. writer Laura …
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Salvador Dali? Pablo Picasso? Gertrude Stein? Alice B. Toklas? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A self-assured painter once suggested that one should never deliberately create a portrait to look precisely like its subject. Instead, the brilliance of the artwork would cause the subject to grow to look like the portrait over time. Would you please …
Pablo Picasso? Gertrude Stein? Alice B. Toklas? Salvador Dali? Glenn Ligon? Arianna Huffington? David Mamet? Clifford Gessler? Michael Schulman? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Depictions of people in paintings, photographs, books, and movies can dramatically change cultural perceptions. Powerful images cause accuracy to be superseded, and stylized portrayals to become reified. Near the beginning of …
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 …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: There Are Only Nine Meals Between Mankind and Anarchy”