Tracing Quotations
André Gide? Leonardo da Vinci? Albert Camus? Carol Shields? Igor Stravinsky? Orson Welles? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A scrappy independent movie director who was given a massive budget created a pretentious flop. A poet who wrote brilliant iambic pentameter could only compose pedestrian free verse. A musician who spent countless hours in the studio …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Art Is Born of Constraint, Thrives on Struggle, and Dies of Freedom”
Groucho Marx? Spike Milligan? Lydia Augusta Arsens? Tramp Starr? Dr. Parr? John Conolly? John Stuart Blackie? Tom Chalmers? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: The word “cracked” has several slang meanings. The traditional slang meaning is crazy, foolish, or eccentric. Here are three versions of a comical saying which uses wordplay: (1) You’ve got to be …
Continue reading “Quip Origin: Blessed Are the Cracked for They Shall Let in the Light”
Walt Disney? Tom Batiuk? Gary Wright? Maurice Lutkin? Herb Caen? Chili Davis? Bumper Sticker? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Aging is an unavoidable part of the human experience, but it is not necessary to become staid and boring. Here is a pertinent saying: Growing old is mandatory. Growing up is optional. This remark has been …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Growing Old Is Mandatory. Growing Up Is Optional”
Arthur D. Little Consulting Firm? JoAnne Yates? John H. Dessauer? Ian H. Gordon? Horace Becker? JoAnne Yates? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Predicting the demand for an innovative product is remarkably difficult. Apparently, the company that invented the photocopier hired a prestigious consulting firm to estimate future sales. The result was a statement like the …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: The World Market for Copiers Will Never Exceed 5,000 Units”
Douglas Adams? J. R. Williams? Bill Vaughan? Ron Burns? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: There is a family of comical sayings which highlight the paradoxical intelligence of fools and idiots: (1) Nothing is foolproof. Fools are entirely too ingenious.(2) They’re not idiot-proof because idiots are so damned inventive. English humorist Douglas Adams employed this quip, …
Henry Ward Beecher? William James? Upton Sinclair? Peggy Hopkins Joyce? Metellus Numidicus? Frederick Reynolds? John Dryden? Robert Bell? Della E. Stewart? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Maintaining relationships is difficult. One must accommodate the needs and desires of people who are sometimes confusing, annoying, and ungrateful. Yet, these complex human connections produce happiness and fulfillment. …
Continue reading “Saying Origin: You Can’t Live With Them, and You Can’t Live Without Them”
Benjamin Franklin? Benjamin Rush? Doctor Thibou? David Pitcairn? William Wadd? George G. Sigmond? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Charlatans who provide fraudulent medical advice and dubious nostrums have afflicted humankind for centuries. Misguided patients often boost these deceivers the most. Here are two versions of a pertinent saying: (1) There are no greater liars than …
Continue reading “Adage Origin: Quacks Are the Greatest Liars in the World, Except Their Patients”
Alice Walker? Rhona Raskins? William Martin? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: People have more power than they believe, but they must be willing to exercise it if they wish to achieve their goals. Here is a pertinent saying: The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any. This …
Thomas J. Watson Sr.? Thomas J. Watson Jr.? Howard H. Aiken? Harold Bergstein? J. Presper Eckert? John Mauchly? Chris Morgan? David Langford? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Collections of boneheaded predictions are popular with people who enjoy laughter combined with commiseration or superiority. Computers were extraordinarily expensive in the 1950s. First-generation machines used vacuum tubes …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: I Think There Is a World Market for About Five Computers”
Ernest Hemingway? Lionel Trilling? Ladislaus Boros? Larry Williams? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: U.S. novelist Ernest Hemingway has been credited with the following fatalistic remark: All true stories end in death. I have been unable to find this precise statement in Hemingway’s oeuvre. Apparently, he employed a different phrasing. Would you please help me find …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: All True Stories End in Death”