Tracing Quotations
William Marcy Tweed? Boss Tweed? Thomas Nast? Zack Chandler? Napoleon Bonaparte? Joseph Stalin? Boris Bazhanov? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Remarks about the manipulation of vote tabulations have a long history. Apparently, a corrupt leader made a cynical pronouncement about voting. Here are three versions: Would you please explore this family of sayings? Reply from …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: As Long As I Count the Votes, What Are You Going To Do About It?”
W. Somerset Maugham? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: Often a request for criticism is really an appeal for approval or accolades. English playwright and novelist W. Somerset Maugham made a similar observation. Would you please help me to find a citation? Quote Investigator: In 1915 W. Somerset Maugham published the popular novel “Of Human Bondage”. The …
Continue reading “People Ask You for Criticism, But They Only Want Praise”
Noel Coward? Frank Sinatra? Margaret McManus? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: The popular English playwright Noel Coward apparently once suggested that he welcomed any amount of criticism as long as it was unqualified praise. Would you please help me to find a citation? Quote Investigator: In January 1956 Noel Coward was interviewed by journalist Margaret McManus …
Continue reading “I Love Criticism as Long as It Is Unqualified Praise”
Alan Levy? Ron Wellburn? Richard Hofstadter? Christopher Lehmann-Haupt? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: A clique can form around a cultural organization or periodical and transform it into an insular mutual admiration society. Detractors of “The New York Review of Books” have given the journal the following nickname: The New York Review of Each Other’s Books Would …
Continue reading “The New York Review of Each Other’s Books”
James Matthew Barrie? Peter Pan? Betty Comden? Adolph Green? Mary Martin? Apocryphal Question for Quote Investigator: James Matthew Barrie created the famous fictional character Peter Pan. Barrie has received credit for the following statement: So come with me, where dreams are born, and time is never planned. This sentiment fits the world of Peter Pan, …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Where Dreams Are Born, and Time Is Never Planned”
Paul M. Mazur? Adam Curtis? Al Gore? Robert S. Lynd? Helen Merrell Lynd? Mark Frauenfelder? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: Influential societal observers have long denounced cultures that emphasize consumption. The ever growing fabrication and usage of products forces individuals to scramble on a hedonic treadmill that is ultimately unsatisfying and pointless according to critics. The …
Continue reading “Man’s Desires Can Be Developed So That They Will Greatly Overshadow His Needs”
Ronald Coase? Irving John Good? Charles D. Hendrix? Robert W. Flower? Bulent Gultekin? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Collecting and interpreting data is a delicate process that is subject to conscious and unconscious biases. The selective choice of inputs and statistical tests can yield results that are misleading. Here are two versions of a comical …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: If You Torture the Data Long Enough, It Will Confess”
Jackie ‘Moms’ Mabley? Bette Davis? Joan Crawford? Craig Russell? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Two stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age were combative rivals. When one died the other said something like the following: I was taught that you shouldn’t speak of the dead unless you have something good to say. Therefore, I will only say this, …
Continue reading “Nothing But Good Should Be Said of the Dead — He’s Dead. Good”
William Butler Yeats? John Butler Yeats? Carl Sandburg? Ezra Pound? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: A reader who requests clarification for a poem that is opaque is sometimes met with a rejoinder of this type: If the lines can be explained then the work is not poetry. This notion has been attributed to the Nobel Prize-winning …
Emo Philips? George Carlin? Richard Saul Wurman? Dale Dauten? Daniel C. Dennett? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: A prominent philosopher of consciousness and the brain included a hilarious joke in a recent book. Here are three versions: I used to think that the human brain was the most fascinating part of the body. Then I realized, …