Tracing Quotations
Speaker: William Morris? Guy de Maupassant? Alexander Hadden? Elliot Paul? Gillian Widdicombe? Adlai Stevenson? Anonymous? Landmark: Eiffel Tower? National Theatre in London? Palace of Culture in Warsaw? Empire State Building? Dear Quote Investigator: Cultural critics have lamented that some massive structures dominating city skylines are unsightly, e.g., the Eiffel Tower, the National Theatre in London, …
Continue reading “This Is the Only Place Where I Can Avoid Seeing the Damned Thing”
Adlai Stevenson? William Randolph Hearst? Chauncey Depew? Asa W. Tenney? Harold Wilson? Michael Douglas? Gordon Gekko? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Several politicians have attacked the prevarications of opponents by employing a quip from a family of humorous sayings. Here are two examples: If they will not lie about our past, we will not tell the …
Continue reading “If You Stop Telling Lies About Us We Will Stop Telling the Truth About You”
Eleanor Roosevelt? Confucius? Chinese Proverb? William L. Watkinson? E. Pomeroy Cutler? James Keller? Oliver Wendell Holmes? Adlai Stevenson? John F. Kennedy? Charles Schulz? William Appleton Lawrence? Dear Quote Investigator: I love the emphasis on constructive action in the following saying: It is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. These words have …
Continue reading “Better to Light a Candle Than to Curse the Darkness”
Elvis Presley? Dwight D. Eisenhower? The White Rabbit? Clint Eastwood? Martin Gabel? Adlai Stevenson? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Some humorous quotations are created by cleverly transforming prosaic expressions. Most people are familiar with the exhortation: Don’t just stand there, do something. However, occasionally inaction is preferable, and the following rearranged sentence has been employed: Don’t …
Abraham Lincoln? Adlai Stevenson? Edward J. Stieglitz? Edward Barrett Warman? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: There are posters, shirts, mugs, and other commercial products displaying the following inspirational quote: And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years. Abraham Lincoln is credited with this aphorism, …