Tracing Quotations
Joey Adams? Yip Harburg? Evan Esar? Judge Magazine? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: A loving kiss is wonderful, but it should be with the right person. A deceptive kiss is perilous. A family of quips about the dangers of osculation uses a rhetorical device called antimetabole. Words in the first half of a statement are …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Never Let a Fool Kiss You, and Never Let a Kiss Fool You”
Vincent van Gogh? Joni Mitchell? Justin Lee Collins? Nellie Hermann? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A personal website enables an artist to achieve inexpensive worldwide distribution of a large digital portfolio. Yet, the greatest challenge for an artist today is convincing others to pay attention to their artworks. In the late nineteenth century an artist …
Mignon McLaughlin? Derric Johnson? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: A clever author once compared the unfulfilled potential of a human to a three-way light fixture which contains a one-way light bulb that never shines with its maximum luminance. Would you please help me to determine the name of the author who crafted this simile? Reply …
Matthew Yglesias? William Deresiewicz? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Predicting the technological future is extremely difficult. In 2007 Amazon corporation introduced the Kindle ebook reader, and ebooks grew rapidly in popularity during the following years. Commentators envisioned dramatic upheavals in the book world. One influential pundit projected that publishers were going to be wiped out. …
Albert Schweitzer? Jim Valvano? Erica Anderson? C. T. Campion? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Maintaining a high level of enthusiasm and motivation is difficult. Sometimes our inner fire starts to sputter. Happily, this fire can be reignited by an experience with another person. We owe that person our deep thanks. Apparently, Alsatian physician and humanitarian …
Victor Hugo? Émile Souvestre? Gustave Aimard? Frederic C. Howe? Ralph Waldo Trine? Benjamin Disraeli? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: An idea can transform a culture and catalyze historical changes. Here are three expressions from a family of pertinent sayings: (1) Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.(2) Nothing can stand against …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Nothing Is More Powerful Than an Idea Whose Time Has Come”
Paul Samuelson? Economists? Wall Street Indexes? Katharyn Duff? Lawrence Summers? Niall Ferguson? Question for Quote Investigator: Predicting the fluctuations of the economy is enormously difficult. Many economists have forecast recessions that never occurred. Here are three comical expressions: (1) Economists have predicted 11 of the last 5 recessions.(2) The markets projected twelve of the last …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Predicted Nine Out of the Last Five Recessions”
Kurt Vonnegut? Jacqueline Blais? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A prominent writer was unhappy that the world was not rapidly phasing out the use of fossil fuels. So the wit wrote a sardonic explanation for future generations. Here are two versions: (1) We were roaring drunk on petroleum.(2) We were rolling drunk on petroleum. These …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Please Accept Our Apologies. We Were Roaring Drunk On Petroleum”
Jacques Barzun? Morris Philipson? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: There are several roles in the domain of publishing. A prominent thinker has asserted that writing “is the most difficult of all to learn”. The thinker also said writing is “at least a craft and at its best an art”. These remarks have been attributed to …
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe? Jules Verne? Friedrich Nietzsche? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A character in a novel by the prominent German poet and novelist Johann Wolfgang von Goethe presented a radical stance on happiness and illusion. Here are two versions: (1) Nothing which makes us happy is an illusion?(2) Can that be a delusion …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Nothing That Makes Us Happy Is an Illusion”