Edna St. Vincent Millay – Quote Investigator®

My Candle Burns at Both Ends; It Will Not Last the Night

Edna St. Vincent Millay? Samuel Hoffenstein? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: A candle burning at both ends provides magnificent radiance for a short time. The poet Edna St. Vincent Millay constructed a brilliant metaphorical verse based on this observation. Would you please help me to find a citation? Quote Investigator: In June 1918 “Poetry: A Magazine …

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In Three Words, I Can Sum Up Everything I’ve Learned About Life. It Goes On

Robert Frost? Edna St. Vincent Millay? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: The acclaimed American poet Robert Frost was asked as an octogenarian what he had learned about life, and he succinctly replied: It goes on. I have been unable to find a contemporaneous citation, and a popular quotation website says that the attribution is disputed. What …

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It’s Not True That Life Is One Damn Thing After Another—It’s One Damn Thing Over and Over

Edna St. Vincent Millay? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: You have already examined the following mordant saying: Life is just one damned thing after another. Apparently, the prominent poet Edna St. Vincent Millay disagreed, and she offered her own alternative trenchant analysis of life. Here are three versions: It’s one damn thing over and over. It’s …

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Life Is Just One Damn Thing After Another

Mark Twain? Lilian Bell? Elbert Hubbard? Frank Ward O’Malley? Bruce Calvert? H. L. Mencken? Charles Dickens? Edna St. Vincent Millay? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: The following statement of exasperation and resignation has been attributed to the luminary Mark Twain, the aphorist Elbert Hubbard, and the journalist Frank Ward O’Malley: Life is just one damn thing …

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A Person Who Publishes a Book Willfully Appears Before the Populace with His Pants Down

Edna St. Vincent Millay? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: A recent controversial article about critics and criticism in the New York Times contained a refreshingly blunt two-part quotation [DGNY]: To writers, Edna St. Vincent Millay offered the wisest counsel. It rings down the decades. “A person who publishes a book willfully appears before the populace with …

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