Tracing Quotations
Maya Angelou? Celia Caroline Cole? Friedrich Nietzsche? George Martin? Michael Frisby? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: The Earth has natural rhythms such as the high and low tides of the ocean. The sky also has rhythms such as the oscillating electromagnetic radiation from a pulsar. Here is a saying on this theme: Everything in the …
Continue reading “Everything in the Universe Has a Rhythm. Everything Dances”
Friedrich Nietzsche? Josh Billings? Thomas Common? Alexander Tille? Walter Kaufmann? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: A popular humorist or a famous philosopher said something like the following: It is better to know nothing than to half-know many topics. Would you please help me to find the correct statement of this adage and the name of its …
Continue reading “Better Know Nothing Than Half-Know Many Things”
Aneurin Bevan? Jennie Lee? Michael Foot? Friedrich Nietzsche? Zarathustra? Manic Street Preachers? John Strachey? Hubert Griffith? Herbert L. Matthews? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: A U.K politician expressed a willingness to hear alternative viewpoints by using the following expression: This is my truth; tell me yours. British Labour Party leader Aneurin Bevan has received credit for …
Friedrich Nietzsche? Zarathustra? John Strachey? Hubert Griffith? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: Different people hold divergent views of the world. Here are three versions of a germane remark: You have heard my truth; now tell me yours. This then is my truth. What is yours? This is my way; where is yours? The German philosopher Friedrich …
Continue reading “This Is My Way/Truth; Tell Me Your Way/Truth”
Friedrich Nietzsche? Viktor E. Frankl? Thomas Common? Anthony M. Ludovici? Walter Kaufmann? R. J. Hollingdale? Ilse Lasch? Dear 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 who …
Continue reading “If We Have Our Own ‘Why’ of Life, We Shall Get Along With Almost Any ‘How’”
Friedrich Nietzsche? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: A fatigued philosopher may forgetfully return to previous ideas. The worn out thinker may fruitlessly reexamine notions that were rightfully rejected in the past. The famous German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche has received credit for the following remark: When we are tired, we are attacked by ideas we conquered long …
Continue reading “When We Are Tired, We Are Attacked by Ideas We Conquered Long Ago”
Creator: Friedrich Nietzsche Context: In 1878 Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche published “Menschliches, Allzumenschliches: Ein Buch für Freie Geister” (“Human, All Too Human: A Book for Free Spirits”). He employed an aphoristic style that explicated topics with short numbered passages and sayings. Item number 536 consisted of the following:[1]1878, Menschliches, Allzumenschliches: Ein Buch für Freie Geister (Human, …
Josh Billings? Artemus Ward? Will Rogers? Abraham Lincoln? Mark Twain? Friedrich Nietzsche? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Here are two versions of an expression I am trying to trace: 1) It’s better to know nothing than to know what ain’t so. 2) It is better not to know so much, than to know so many things …
Continue reading “It Is Better to Know Nothing than to Know What Ain’t So”
Friedrich Nietzsche? Thomas De Quincey? W. H. Auden? Louis Kronenberger? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: A provocative comment about human memory has been attributed to the controversial philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche: The existence of forgetting has never been proved: we only know that some things do not come to mind when we want them. This statement suggests …
Continue reading “The Existence of Forgetting Has Never Been Proved”
Friedrich Nietzsche? Megan Fox? Anne Louise Germaine de Staël? John Stewart? Norman Flint? Science Fiction fans? Angela Monet? Rumi? George Carlin? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: The following statement is credited to the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche: And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music. Yet, …
Continue reading “Those Who Dance Are Considered Insane by Those Who Can’t Hear the Music”