Donald Barthelme? Fannie Hurst? Gore Vidal? Question for Quote Investigator: A wide variety of sayings have employed the following template: You may not be interested in X, but X is interested in you. Different terms have been substituted for X including: war, politics, dialectic, and strategy. In addition, variant templates have occurred: We may not …
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Quote Origin: The Center Will Not Hold If It Has Been Spot-Welded by an Operator Whose Deepest Concern Is His Lottery Ticket
Donald Barthelme? William Butler Yeats? Question for Quote Investigator: A poet once proclaimed with despair that the center cannot hold. The postmodern storyteller Donald Barthelme quipped that the center would not hold if it was welded together by a distracted worker. Would you please help me to find a citation. Also, I cannot recall the …
Quote Origin: The Thing About Books Is, There Are Quite a Number You Don’t Have To Read
Donald Barthelme? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: When I was a young child I found the number of books in my local library overwhelming. I wondered how one could find the time to read so many books? When I was a slightly older child, I concluded that there were a enormous number that you don’t …
Quote Origin: A Healed Femur Is the Earliest Sign of True Civilization
Margaret Mead? Paul Brand? Philip Yancey? Steven C. Beering? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A primordial human who fell and broke a femur (thigh bone) would have faced terrible odds of survival. A vulnerable individual who was unable to walk and gather food would probably expire. Yet, a caring and supportive culture would enable recovery. …
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Quote Origin: Poetry Is Music Written for the Human Voice
Maya Angelou? Bertha Flowers? Bill Moyers? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Rhyme and rhythm often produce a lovely euphony in poems. This notion has been expressed as follows: Poetry is music written for the human voice. These words have been attributed to Renaissance woman Maya Angelou, but some people assert that she disclaimed credit. Would …
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Quote Origin: Life Is Uncertain. Eat Dessert First
Ernestine Ulmer? Arthur Murray? Earl Wilson? Leopold Fechtner? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: T-shirts and bumper stickers present a modern proverb about the precariousness of existence. Here are two versions: Ernestine Ulmer often receives credit although that name is somewhat obscure. Would you please explore the provenance of this expression? Reply from Quote Investigator: The …
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Quote Origin: When One Has Finished Writing a Short Story One Should Delete the Beginning and the End
Anton Chekhov? Ivan Bunin? André Maurois? Paul Engle? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A famous author offered the following astonishing advice: After completing a story one should cross out the beginning and the end. This guidance has been attributed to the prominent Russian playwright and short-story writer Anton Chekhov. Would you please explore this topic? …
Quote Origin: The Horse Is Here To Stay, But the Automobile Is Only a Novelty — a Fad
A Leading Banker? President of the Michigan Savings Bank? Sarah T. Bushnell? Horace Rackham? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: An investor was given a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to purchase stock in Henry Ford’s nascent automobile company. The cautious capitalist asked a prominent banker what he thought, and he received an erroneous prediction: The horse is here …
Quote Origin: A Clever Person Solves a Problem. A Wise Person Avoids It
Albert Einstein? Jerome Halprin? Abba Eban? Leonard Lyons? Sidney Greenberg? Paul Connett? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: A popular quip highlights the distinction between the adjectives clever and wise: A clever person solves a problem. A wise person avoids it. This notion can also be expressed as follows: A clever person gets out of a …
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Quote Origin: The Net Interprets Censorship As Damage and Routes Around It
Howard Rheingold? John Gilmore? Michael Sattler? Philip Elmer-DeWitt? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Modern communication systems are designed to distribute messages even when some connections and modules are damaged. This resilience inspired an adage in the 1990s about the suppression of information. Here are two versions: Nowadays, the official and unofficial strategies used to impede …
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