Tracing Quotations
Paul Eldridge? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: The willingness to become a martyr in the service of a noble cause is often celebrated, but the U.S. novelist Paul Eldridge voiced a sardonic viewpoint. He suggested that an individual is willing to die for an elevated idea primarily because the idea is unclear. Would you please help …
Continue reading “Man Is Ready To Die for an Idea, Provided That Idea Is Not Quite Clear To Him”
Paul Eldridge? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: I noticed that the QI website has an entry for the following expression: You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him. I believe a similar statement containing the phrase “to retaliate or to reciprocate” was printed in …
Ann Landers? Abigail Van Buren? Johann Wolfgang von Goethe? Samuel Johnson? Malcolm Forbes? Paul Eldridge? Charles Haddon Spurgeon? James D. Miles? Dan Reeves? Dear Quote Investigator: I am attempting to verify the following quotation because it will appear in a forthcoming book, but I have discovered multiple attributions: You can easily judge the character of …