Tracing Quotations
Oscar Wilde? Felix Grendon? Percy Colson? Walter Winchell? Reader’s Digest? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: A well-known moral injunction states that one should forgive one’s enemies. A humorous twist suggests that one should grant forgiveness because it produces annoyance in one’s adversaries. This notion has been attributed to the famous wit Oscar Wilde. Would you please …
Continue reading “Always Forgive Your Enemies; Nothing Annoys Them So Much”
Pete Seeger? Vesta M. Kelly? Mr. Minnick the Cynic? Old Timer? Bill Gold? Evan Esar? Saul Lavisky? Laurence J. Peter? Sydney J. Harris? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Comprehending the details of a complex legal contract is a daunting task. Yet, entrapment by an unnoticed provision of an agreement is a terrible experience. Here is a …
Thomas Carlyle? Benjamin Franklin? Samuel Taylor Coleridge? Johann P. F. Richter? Minna Antrim? Heinrich Heine? William Ralph Inge? Dear Quote Investigator: The most memorable and painful lessons are usually learned via direct experience, but the cost can be very high. A family of adages depict this point of view. Here are two instances: Experience is …
Continue reading “Experience Is the Best of Schoolmasters; Only the School-Fees Are Heavy”
John Adams? Thomas Jefferson? John Ewing? John Hurt? Dear Quote Investigator: Surprisingly, one of the founding fathers of the United States was skeptical about the long-term viability of democracy. The statesman believed that the proponents of democracy were philosophically immature. He was sympathetic to a young person of fifteen who found the system attractive, but …
George Bernard Shaw? Gladys Bronwyn Stern? W. H. H. MacKellar? Gil Stern? Mack McGinnis? Dear Quote Investigator: An entertaining quip contrasts the attitudes of the dreamer and the worrier: Optimists invent airplanes; pessimists invent parachutes. This saying has been attributed to Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw and English author Gladys Bronwyn Stern. Would you please …
Continue reading “The Optimist Invents the Airplane and the Pessimist the Parachute”
Kenneth Patchen? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: In the 1980s I was browsing in the poetry section of a bookshop, and I saw a sign designed to encourage purchasers. Here are two versions: People who say they love poetry but never buy any are cheap SOB’s. People who say they like poetry and don’t buy any …
Continue reading “The People Who Say They Like Poetry and Never Buy Any Are Cheap SOB’s”
Benjamin Franklin? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Some people are only able to learn via direct experience. They disregard the lessons and the struggles of others. Yet, this experiential approach can be quite costly. The fees incurred may be measured in time expended, energy drained, money squandered, and injuries suffered. The statesman Benjamin Franklin said something …
Continue reading “Experience Keeps a Dear School; Yet Fools Will Learn In No Other”
Robert Frost? G. K. Chesterton? Eleanor Graham Vance? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: The prominent poet Robert Frost did not compose free verse. Instead, he welcomed the structural demands of rhyme and meter. To explicate his choice he used a clever and vivid simile from the domain of tennis. Would you please help me to find …
Continue reading “Composing Free Verse Is Like Playing Tennis Without a Net”
William James? Harry Granison Hill? Joseph Fort Newton? Norman Vincent Peale? E. Stanley Jones? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: One’s attitude toward life has an enormous effect on one’s experiences in life. Here are two statements on this theme: (1) The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering …
Emily Dickinson? Susan Gilbert Dickinson? Martha Dickinson Bianchi? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: The ability to envision something novel and appealing is vital to the formulation and accomplishment of worthwhile goals. A robust imagination initiates the process. The poet Emily Dickinson employed the apt metaphor of lighting a fuse to express this notion. Would you please …
Continue reading “The Possible’s Slow Fuse Is Lit By the Imagination!”