Marshall McLuhan? Ashley Montagu? Edmund Carpenter? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Canadian communications theorist Marshall McLuhan contemplated the influences of different types of media on human thought and behavior. He said that television was a cool medium because it was high in participation, whereas radio was a hot medium with low participation. He formulated the …
Category Archives: Marshall McLuhan
Quote Origin: Art Is Anything You Can Get Away With
Marshall McLuhan? Quentin Fiore? Frank Richardson? Terence Trent D’Arby? Theodor W. Adorno? Question for Quote Investigator: In 2019 the Italian conceptual artist and provocateur Maurizio Cattelan used duct tape to attach a banana to the wall of an art gallery. He dubbed the resultant artwork “Comedian”. After Cattelan sold the quasi-sculpture for a lucrative price …
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Quote Origin: Famous for Being Famous
Daniel J. Boorstin? Andy Warhol? Charles Godfrey Leland? Marshall McLuhan? Raquel Welch? David Brinkley? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Achieving fame required some significant accomplishment or impressive quality in the past. Now it seems that people are deemed notable for absurd reasons. Here are three phrases describing the self-referential nature of modern celebrityhood: This concept …
Quote Origin: Every Society Honors Its Live Conformists, and Its Dead Troublemakers
Mignon McLaughlin? Marshall McLuhan? Wayne Dyer? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: History books laud unconventional thinkers and eccentric characters who faced hardships during their lifetimes. An adage expressing this notion has been credited to magazine editor Mignon McLaughlin and media theorist Marshall McLuhan. Here are two versions: Would you please explore this saying? Reply from …
Quote Origin: A Lottery Is a Taxation Upon All the Fools in Creation
William Petty? Henry Fielding? Adam Smith? Camillo Benso? James Wolcott? Marshall McLuhan? Roger Jones? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: The winners of a recent lottery jackpot split more than one billion dollars. Yet the probability of a lucky lottery strike is smaller than an unlucky lightning strike. Economists, mathematicians, and wits have made sardonic remarks …
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Quote Origin: We Shape Our Tools, and Thereafter Our Tools Shape Us
Marshall McLuhan? Winston Churchill? Henry David Thoreau? Robert Flaherty? Emerson Brown? John Culkin? William J. Mitchell? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: The famous media theorist Marshall McLuhan has been credited with a brilliant adage about the co-evolution of humans and tools. Here are two versions: I have not been able to find a good citation. …
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Quote Origin: We Don’t Know Who Discovered Water, But We Know It Wasn’t a Fish
Marshall McLuhan? Albert Einstein? Clyde Kluckhohn? Pierce Butler? James C. Coleman? John H. Fisher? John Culkin? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Sometimes an individual embedded in a particular culture or environment can become blind to the prevailing norms within his or her domain. I have heard a figurative expression that illustrates this predicament. Here are …
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