Tracing Quotations
IBM Motto? Richard Hamming? Sia Armajani? Howard Dimmig? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Machines can perform work which humans do not wish to perform because it is repetitive and dangerous. Yet, as we enter the age of advanced AI there are many humans who desire to continue to perform creative and engaging tasks. Here are …
Continue reading “Motto Origin: Machines Should Work. People Should Think”
Peter Ustinov? Frank A. Jones? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The British actor and raconteur Peter Ustinov once wrote about an inevitable balance between dreams and nightmares. Would you please help me to find a citation? Reply from Quote Investigator: In February 1989 Peter Ustinov published an article about Orson Welles in “The Independent” newspaper …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: He Is the Only Genius with an IQ of 85”
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 …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Books Will Not Exist in About Five Years”
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 …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: No One Needs a Vacation So Much as the Person Who Has Just Had One”
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 …