Tracing Quotations
Alden Nowlan? John Robert Colombo? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Young children often view adults with awe. Even disobedient ones fear the deity-like powers of adults. Yet, over time the cracks in the façade of authority grow. Some author has stated: The day the child realizes that all adults are imperfect he becomes an adolescent. Would …
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William James? Gerald G. Jampolsky? Judy J. Johnson? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: Recently, I came across a quotation attributed to the famous philosopher and psychologist William James about the difficult task of changing one’s belief system. He stated that one must let the past slip away, and one must dissolve fears. I do not recall …
Jeff Bezos? Adam Lashinsky? Om Malik? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: Business leaders often boast about the profit margins of their corporations, and some stock analysts praise companies which maximize that metric. Yet, a self-satisfied attitude attracts dangerous competitors. Jeff Bezos, the entrepreneurial founder of the Amazon juggernaut, has received credit for this trenchant remark: Your …
Arthur C. Clarke? Paraphrase? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The intelligence of humanity has enabled its absolute dominance of the biosphere; however, this trait has also generated frightening existential risks such as the danger of nuclear warfare. Science fiction luminary Arthur C. Clarke has received credit for the following remark: It has yet to be …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: It Has Yet To Be Proved That Intelligence Has Real Survival Value”
Fred Bass? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: The host of a video on YouTube mentioned a remarkably prescient quotation from a New York book dealer in the 1960s who predicted that telephones would have screens, and people would read books on those screens selected from a large electronic library. Would you please explore this topic? Quote …
Continue reading “Some Day, You’ll Have a Telephone with a Screen and You’ll Be Able To Dial a Book”
Mother Jones? Mary Harris Jones? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: A rallying cry employed by protesters apparently began with labor activist Mary Harris Jones who is better known as Mother Jones: Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living. Would you please trace this expression? Quote Investigator: Mother Jones described in her 1925 …
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Leonardo da Vinci? John H. Secondari? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: The famous Renaissance figure Leonardo da Vinci has been given credit for a remark about the experience of flight: Once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. How could Leonardo know something like this? I am skeptical of …
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George Bernard Shaw? Albert Schweitzer? Life Magazine? Mohandas Gandhi? Ferdinand Pecora? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Some thinkers believe that humanity has not yet achieved an advanced society worthy of the name “civilizationâ€. This notion has been expressed with the following dialog: “What’s your idea of civilization?” “It’s a good idea. Somebody ought to start it.” …
Bill Gates? Arthur C. Clarke? J. C. R. Licklider? Roy Amara? Alfred Mayo? George H. Heilmeier? Manfred Kochen? Raymond Kurzweil? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Predicting the technological future of mankind is enormously difficult. One recurring flaw in such projections has been identified. Here are three versions: We tend to overestimate the effect of a …
Oscar Wilde? George Bernard Shaw? Ambrose Bierce? Charles Frederick Joy? Percival Christopher Wren? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: If you are attending a soporific party, and the host asks whether you are content you might reply with the following comically self-absorbed zinger attributed to the famous Irish wit Oscar Wilde: “Are you enjoying yourself, Mr. Wilde?†…
Continue reading ““Are You Enjoying Yourself?” “Yes, But That’s the Only Thing I Am Enjoying””