Charlie Munger? Warren Buffett? Andrew Kilpatrick? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A famous investor once wrote about strategies for achieving wealth. The key was not concocting brilliant strategies; instead, the successful long-term investor triumphed by being “consistently not stupid”. This notion has been attributed to U.S. businessman Charlie Munger. Would you please help me to …
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Quote Origin: War Consists of Months of Intolerable Boredom Interspersed with Moments of Extreme Fear
Civis? Sapper? Scott Hurtt Paradise? H. O. A. Anne? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Warfare is horrific, but feelings of terror occur intermittently. Battlefield veterans developed the following saying: War consists of months of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror. Would you please explore the provenance of this saying? Reply from Quote Investigator: This …
Quote Origin: Fascism Is a Counter-Revolution Against a Revolution That Never Took Place
Ignazio Silone? Gwenda David? Eric Mosbacher? William Weaver? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Thinkers have attempted to analyze and explain the rise of fascism in Germany and Italy. An Italian writer suggested that the failure of left-wing revolutionary movements catalyzed the emergence of fascism. Here is the pertinent quotation: Fascism is a counter-revolution against a …
Quote Origin: We Are on the Threshold of a Change in the Universe Comparable to the Transition from Non-Life to Life
Hans Moravec? Timothy Leary? Vince Rause? Grant Fjermedal? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The creation of the first living beings on planet Earth was an epochal change. The prominent roboticist Hans Moravec has stated that the advent of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) will be a change comparable to the transition from non-life to life. Would …
Quote Origin: He Is the Only Genius with an IQ of 85
Gore Vidal? Andy Warhol? Peter Conrad? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A U.S. intellectual once offered the following remarkably harsh assessment of a famous pop-artist: He is the only genius with an IQ of 60. Reportedly, the verbal sharpshooter was Gore Vidal, and the visual artist was Andy Warhol. The precise number specified for the …
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Quote Origin: Books Will Not Exist in About Five Years
Nicholas Negroponte? M. G. Siegler? William Deresiewicz? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Predicting the technological future is extremely difficult. More than a decade ago Nicholas Negroponte, the head of the MIT Media Lab, predicted that books would not exist in about five years. He meant that the popularity of paper books would decline, and ebooks …
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Quote Origin: No One Needs a Vacation So Much as the Person Who Has Just Had One
Elbert Hubbard? Mary Sargent Hopkins? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Vacations with full itineraries can be exciting and exhausting. Here are two versions of a pertinent quip: (1) One never needs a vacation so much as the day after returning from one.(2) The man who most needs a vacation is the man who has just …
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Quote Origin: A Bore Is a Person Who Deprives You of Solitude Without Providing You with Company
Oscar Wilde? Gian Vincenzo Gravina? John D. MacDonald? Roger Ebert? Paul Gibson? Marcel Proust? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: A clever person constructed the following definition: A bore is a person who deprives you of solitude without providing you with company. This remark has been attributed to Irish wit Oscar Wilde, Italian man of letters …
Quote Origin: Love Is the Crowning Grace of Humanity, the Holiest Right of the Soul, the Golden Link Which Binds Us to Duty and Truth
Francis Petrarch? Plutarch? Henry Theodore Tuckerman? Frederick Saunders? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The following ornate passage about love has been attributed to Francis Petrarch, a prominent poet of the Italian Renaissance: Love is the crowning grace of humanity, the holiest right of the soul, the golden link which binds us to duty and truth. …
Quote Origin: Being Powerful Is Like Being a Lady. If You Have To Tell People You Are, You Aren’t
Jesse Carr? Margaret Thatcher? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Positive self-descriptions are sometimes inaccurate. Here are three versions of a saying which illustrates this insight: (1) Power is like being a lady—if you have to tell them you are, you ain’t. (2) Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people …