Friedrich Nietzsche? Viktor E. Frankl? Thomas Common? Anthony M. Ludovici? Walter Kaufmann? R. J. Hollingdale? Ilse Lasch? Question for Quote Investigator: Life can be aggravating and even agonizing. Yet, a steady internal purpose helps to make difficulties endurable together with the thought that happiness and pleasure will someday return. Here is an apposite adage: One …
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Quote Origin: I Really Don’t Mind What People Do, So Long As They Don’t Do It In the Street and Frighten the Horses
Mrs. Patrick Campbell? Beatrice Stella Tanner? Helen Maud Tree? Oscar Wilde? Linkum Fidelius? Washington Irving? Alice Roosevelt Longworth? Eric Erskine Wood? Mrs. Claude Beddington? Frances Ethel Beddington? John Moore? King Edward VII? Ronald Reagan? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Enforcing societal norms and taboos is an important activity for some people. Others hesitate to proscribe …
Quote Origin: The Worst Sin Towards Our Fellow Creatures Is Not To Hate Them, But To Be Indifferent To Them
George Bernard Shaw? Anthony Anderson? Wilhelm Stekel? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The playwright George Bernard Shaw apparently contended that indifference to another person was a greater transgression than hatred. He called this indifference a sin. Would you please help me to find a citation? Reply from Quote Investigator: George Bernard Shaw’s play “The Devil’s …
Quote Origin: We Should Utilize Natural Forces and Thus Get All of Our Power. Sunshine Is a Form of Energy, and the Winds and the Tides Are Manifestations of Energy
Thomas Edison? Elbert Hubbard? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The famous inventor Thomas Edison supposedly foresaw the potential of solar energy more than one hundred years ago. He wanted to replace the burning of fuels with the collection of natural energy from the sun, wind, and tides. Did Edison really express this viewpoint? Would you …
Dialogue Origin: “Is Your New Baby a Boy Or a Girl?” “Yes”
Bertrand Russell? Leo Rosten? Apocryphal? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: The prominent British philosopher and essayist Bertrand Russell co-wrote an important book of classical logic titled “Principia Mathematica”. An anecdote about Russell is based on a humorously rigorous logical interpretation of a question. A colleague spoke to Russell shortly after his wife had a baby: …
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Quote Origin: Chess Is As Elaborate a Waste of Human Intelligence as You Could Find Anywhere Outside an Advertising Agency
Raymond Chandler? Philip Marlowe? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A famous writer of detective novels apparently described chess as an enormous waste of human intelligence. My memory is not precise. He may have been talking about poker instead of chess. Would you please explore this topic? Reply from Quote Investigator: Raymond Chandler’s 1953 novel “The …
Quote Origin: A Baby Learns To Speak in Two Years, But It Takes a Lifetime To Learn To Keep Quiet
Ernest Hemingway? Mark Twain? Luke McLuke? Lydia DeVilbiss? Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.? Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.? Frederick B. Wilcox? Abigail Van Buren? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: While searching the twitter database I encountered the following two similar jokes: (1) Humans need two years to learn to speak and sixty years to learn to shut …
Quote Origin: An Intellectual Is Someone Who Has Found Something More Interesting Than Sex
Aldous Huxley? Katharine Whitehorn? Edgar Wallace? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: A widely reported psychological study asserted that people experienced erotic thoughts many times a day on average. Intellectuals, according to a comical definition, are able to free their minds sufficiently from carnal pursuits to consider other subjects of superior interest. The well-known author of …
Quote Origin: What Is a Highbrow? He Is a Man Who Has Found Something More Interesting Than Women
Edgar Wallace? Aldous Huxley? Paul Larmer? Russell Lynes? Katharine Whitehorn? Wayne C. Booth? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Human thoughts are often focused on relationships and intimacy. Yet, other cerebral pursuits may predominate when the mind shifts focus. Here are three closely related versions of a humorous definition: The first two versions are presented from …
Quote Origin: Secrecy Is the Art of Telling a Thing To Only One Person At a Time
University of Oxford? Theresa Russell? Edna Worthley Underwood? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: I have been told with the highest level of confidentiality that the following comical definition has been employed at the University of Oxford: Secret: You may tell it to only one person at a time. Would you please explore the provenance of …
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