Tracing Quotations
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord? Joseph Fouché? Antoine Boulay de la Meurthe? Napoleon Bonaparte? Germaine de Staël? Emmanuel Comte de Las Cases? Walter Scott? Ralph Waldo Emerson? Question for Quote Investigator: In 1804 the Duke of Enghien was accused of aiding Britain and plotting against Napoleon. Enghien was found guilty and executed. This rapid and brutal …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: It Was Worse Than a Crime; It Was a Blunder”
Christopher Reeve? David Michael Petrou? Clark Kent? Kal-El? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: An actor who played Superman was asked about the enduring popularity of the character. The actor stated that the appeal was not based solely on power. Instead, true heroism was shown by the wisdom and maturity displayed while wielding power. Would you …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: A Hero Has the Wisdom and the Maturity to Use the Power Wisely”
Wayne Dyer? Max Planck? Benjamin Wheeler? Gilda Wheeler? Wendy Church? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: When you change your viewpoint on life the entire world can be altered. Carefully deciding where to focus your attention and your efforts is crucial to leading a successful life. Here is a pertinent adage: Change the way you look …
William Maxwell? Annabel Davis-Goff? Elmore Leonard? Helen Dudar? Benjamin Dreyer? William Safire? F. Scott Fitzgerald? Sheilah Graham? Christopher Morley? Terry Hersom? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: The stylistically appropriate use of exclamation points is a contentious topic. One writer proposed the following comically extreme self-contradictory rule: Kill all exclamation points!!! Style guides have presented the …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Every Writer Has a Lifetime Ration of Three Exclamation Points”
Stendhal? Marie-Henri Beyle? Friedrich Nietzsche? Albert Camus? Prosper Mérimée? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: An atheist who was angry about the state of the world crafted the following comically paradoxical saying: The only excuse for God is that he does not exist. This remark has been attributed to the French Romantic novelist Marie-Henri Beyle (known …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: God’s Only Excuse Is That He Does Not Exist”
Life Magazine? Milton College? Joan Kochanowski? Norman Brinkmeier? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: There is a family of wordplay jokes in which a customer asks a waiter about the availability of seafood. Here are three examples: “Waiter, do you serve shrimps here?” “Sure. We don’t care how tall you are. Sit down.” “Do you serve …
Continue reading “Joke Origin: “Do You Serve Lobsters Here?” “Yes, We Serve Anyone””
Emiliano Zapata? Dolores Ibarruri? Franklin D. Roosevelt? Ernest Hemingway? Aeschylus? François-Noël Babeuf? Joseph Heller? Luciano J. Rivas? Rafael Tellez Giron? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: A popular saying extolls courage and condemns subservience even when conditions are challenging: It’s better to die on your feet than live on your knees. This motto has been attributed …
Continue reading “Proverb Origin: It Is Better to Die on Our Feet Than to Live on Our Knees”
Albert Einstein? Charles F. Kettering? Wernher von Braun? Luis de Florez? Charles Erwin Wilson? David C. Hazen? Question for Quote Investigator: There are no guaranteed outcomes when research is conducted. The results might be valuable or worthless. The following saying reflects this uncertainty. Here are two versions: (1) If we knew what it was we …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: If We Knew What We Were Doing, It Would Not Be Called Research”
Geoffrey Hinton? Will Douglas Heaven? Alex Hern? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A modern AI system is implemented with an intricate hardware device, but the crucial distinguishing characteristic of the device is a collection of parameters called weights. It is possible to store a copy of these weights in a separate location. If the hardware …
Samuel Goldwyn? Louella Parsons? Sylvia Porter? Leonard Hall? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A famous producer from the Golden Age of Hollywood once complained to his scriptwriters that their stories were uninspired. The producer made an inadvertently comical request: Let’s have some new cliches. This saying has been attributed to Samuel Goldwyn, but I am …