George Bernard Shaw? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Scientific knowledge is incomplete and tentative. Superior scientific theories regularly supersede existing theories. The knowledge provided is flawed, but the process is self-correcting and self-improving. Irish playwright and activist George Bernard Shaw bluntly stated that science was always wrong. He believed that every time science solved a …
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Quote Origin: You’re Never Too Old To Become Younger
Mae West? George Christy? Barbara Rowes? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A prominent movie star delivered a paradoxical line about aging: You are never too old to become younger. Would you please help to find a citation? Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1969 Hollywood columnist George Christy interviewed the famous actress Mae West in the …
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Quote Origin: It Isn’t Enough To Write So You Will Be Understood. You Have To Write So You Can’t Be Misunderstood
Quintilian? William Cobbett? John Cooke? Charles Haddon Spurgeon? W. E. Smith? Walter Winchell? Rollin D. Salisbury? William H. Taft? Question for Quote Investigator: A maxim about the goal of communication expresses an ideal that is desirable but nearly impossible to achieve. Here are three versions: (1) You must not only speak so that people can …
Quote Origin: Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence
Carl Sagan? Marcello Truzzi? Pierre-Simon Laplace? David Hume? Benjamin Bayly? Elihu Palmer? William Craig Brownlee? F. B. Barton? William Denton? Ely Vaughan Zollars? Joseph Rinn? James Oberg? Arthur C. Clarke? Question for Quote Investigator: Tabloid newspapers have printed remarkable claims about alien abductions, mischievous ghosts, bigfoot sightings, and other anomalies. Skeptics have countered these reports …
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Quote Origin: There Is One Thing In This World That Money Can’t Buy, The Wag Of a Dog’s Tail
Josh Billings? Henry Wheeler Shaw? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A dog wagging its tail energetically produces joy in my heart. The dog is usually expressing genuine enthusiasm. A well-known writer once said that money could not buy a wagging tail. Would you please help me to identify the writer and find a citation? Reply …
Quote Origin: The 3D Web Will Rapidly Be the Dominant Thing and Everyone Will Have an Avatar
Philip Rosedale? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The technology needed to implement virtual reality (VR) has been under development for decades. The company Linden Lab launched a popular virtual world called “Second Life” (SL) in 2003. The avatar of each user could move though a wide variety of 3D digital environments and interact with digital …
Quote Origin: My Father Had a Profound Influence On Me—He Was a Lunatic!
Spike Milligan? Michael Parkinson? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A popular comedian once asserted that his father had a major influence on him. Normally, this type of claim is followed by effusive praise of the father. But the comedian employed a gleeful paraprosdokian by saying that his father was a lunatic. Would you please help …
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Quote Origin: I Prayed That God Would Emancipate Me, But It Was Not Till I Prayed With My Legs That I Was Emancipated
Frederick Douglass? Richard Theodore Greener? Samuel Byron Brittan? Rufus K. Noyes? James Clear? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: You must be willing to take constructive actions to resolve your own problems. If you rely solely on the help of others you will be disheartened. Also, if you depend solely on supernatural intervention you will be …
Quote Origin: Any Fool Can Know. The Point Is To Understand
Albert Einstein? Ernest Kinoy? Gotthold Ephraim Lessing? James L. Christian? George F. Simmons? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Comprehending a subject requires more than memorizing a set of facts and formulas. The famous physicist Albert Einstein supposedly made the following pertinent remark: Any fool can know. The point is to understand. I am skeptical of …
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Quote Origin: The Search for Truth Is More Precious Than Its Possession
Albert Einstein? Gotthold Ephraim Lessing? Alexander Grant? J. A. Turner? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The pursuit of truth is fascinating and energizing while the actual attainment of truth may feel anticlimactic. Here are four instances from a family of sayings: (1) The search for truth is more precious than its possession(2) The search for …
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