Tracing Quotations
Lord Melbourne? William Windham? Benjamin Disraeli? Sydney Smith? William Lamb? Thomas B. Macaulay? Question for Quote Investigator: Each of us has encountered an individual who with highhanded convictions presents an answer to every question. There is a famous witticism aimed at a person of this type: I only wish that I was as cocksure of …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: I Wish I Was As Sure of Any One Thing As He is of Everything”
Benjamin Disraeli? Prince Jérôme Napoléon? Napoleon III? French Academician? Mr. Snigger? Suffragette? Max O’Rell? Paul Blouët? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The statesman Benjamin Disraeli was famous for his witticisms and barbs. Reportedly he was once asked about the difference in meaning between the words “misfortune” and “calamity”, and he constructed a jest aimed at …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: What Is the Difference Between a Misfortune and a Calamity?”
Benjamin Disraeli? William Gladstone? William Makepeace Thackeray? Moses Hadas? A celebrated botanist? A Scotchman? Thomas Bailey Aldrich? Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.? Samuel Wilberforce? Max O’Rell? Question for Quote Investigator: Aspiring authors sent numerous manuscripts to the statesman and novelist Benjamin Disraeli. Reportedly, he would send back a wittily ambiguous response: Many thanks; I shall lose …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Thank You for the Gift Book. I Shall Lose No Time In Reading It”
Benjamin Disraeli? Washington Irving? Question for Quote Investigator: Recently, I was reading the top-selling book “The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable” and encountered this sentence: Nero did not read novels—”Novels are fun to write, not read,” he claimed. I was certain that I had read something similar before. After thinking a few …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: When I Want to Read a Book, I Write One”