Tracing Quotations
Flannery O’Connor? Graham Wallas? E. M. Forster? Inger Stevens? August Heckscher? Paul Samuelson? Shirley MacLaine? Joan Didion? E. L. Doctorow? John Gregory Dunne? Edward Albee? Wendy Wasserstein? William Faulkner? Virginia Hamilton Adair? Stephen King? Question for Quote Investigator: The process of writing helps to clarify thoughts and ideas. For example, some novelists do not outline …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: I Do Not Know What I Think Until I Read What I’m Writing”
Paul Samuelson? Andrew Fletcher of Saltoun? Percy Bysshe Shelley? Mary Shelley? Sylvia Nasar? Question for Quote Investigator: The cultural impact of economic thought has been enormous. Apparently, a famous economist once said something like this: I don’t care who writes a nation’s laws if I can write its economic textbooks. Would you please help me …
Albert Einstein? Napoleon Bonaparte? Baron Rothschild? Paul Samuelson? John D. Rockefeller? Advertising Copy Writer? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Salespeople and advertisers invoke the name of the scientific genius Albert Einstein when they wish to impress gullible individuals. The following grandiose statement has been attributed to Einstein: Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: The Eighth Wonder of the World Is Compound Interest”
Kenneth Kernaghan? P.K. Kuruvilla? Paul Samuelson? Edith Greene? Irwin S. Bernstein? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Each datum in a collection of data may be considered a story. Yet, it is often difficult to make rigorous conclusions based on a motley collection of anecdotes. Scientific data should be collected in a methodical manner according to …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: The Plural of Anecdote Is Not Data”
Paul A. Samuelson? Max Planck? Thomas S. Kuhn? Henri Poincaré? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Resistance to revolutionary scientific theories is intransigent. Progress only occurs when the prestigious detractors from a previous generation die out. Here are four versions of a maxim eloquently stating this viewpoint: Science advances funeral by funeral. Science advances one funeral …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Science Makes Progress Funeral by Funeral”
John Maynard Keynes? Paul Samuelson? Winston Churchill? Joan Robinson? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: John Maynard Keynes was an enormously influential economist, but some of his detractors complained that the opinions he expressed tended to change over the years. Once during a high-profile government hearing a critic accused him of being inconsistent, and Keynes reportedly …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: When the Facts Change, I Change My Mind. What Do You Do, Sir?”