Quote Origin: The First Hundred Years Are the Hardest

Wilson Mizner? Thomas Aloysius Dorgan? Tad Dorgan? Bill Downing? Wilton Lackaye? Clare Briggs? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: The initial stages of activities can be quite challenging. This hardship is reflected in following saying: the first year is the hardest. When the required period of endurance is extended to multiple years the saying becomes more …

Quote Origin: Humanity Will Begin To Recover the Moment It Takes Art as Seriously as Physics, Chemistry, or Money

Ernst Levy? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A prominent musicologist once said that humankind should take art as seriously as physics, chemistry, and money. If this happens then humankind will begin the road to recovery. I do not recall the precise phrasing. Would you please help me to locate this quotation and the name of …

Saying Origin: Socialize the Costs and Privatize the Profits

W. H. Wakinshaw? Erma Angevine? Karl Brandt? Harold Davies? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Critics of politicians and regulators complain about the preferential treatment given to some companies which act irresponsibly. A company that makes a risky bet or sells a dubious product is protected from the negative consequences by governmental intervention. Yet the same …

Quote Origin: Thinking Is the Hardest Work Many People Ever Have To Do, and They Don’t Like To Do Any More of It Than They Can Help

Henry Ford? G. K. Chesterton? Robert R. Updegraff? Charles Zueblin? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Thinking carefully and rigorously about an issue requires major effort. That helps to explain why shallow, lazy, and self-justifying thought is so common. Here is a pertinent quotation:  Thinking is the hardest work many people ever have to do, and …

Joke Origin: Frugal Me! Frugal Me!

Milton Berle? Russell Kay? Young Student? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Teachers enjoy sharing an anecdote about a student who was taught that the word “frugal” meant “to save”. Afterwards the student generated the following story: The beautiful damsel was held prisoner in a tower. When she saw a prince nearby she cried out: “Frugal …

Quote Origin: Sooner or Later We All Sit Down To the Banquet of Consequences

Robert Louis Stevenson? Robert W. Frank? Frederick B. Harris? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: If you engage in a beneficial or a harmful activity you may not immediately experience the result. The effect might be significantly delayed, but eventually you will experience the full repercussions. Here are three versions of a pertinent adage: (1) Everybody, …

Quote Origin: I Regard the Theater as the Greatest of All Art Forms

Oscar Wilde? Thornton Wilder? Frank Capra? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A prominent playwright once said: I regard the theater as the greatest of all art forms, the most immediate way in which a human being can share with another the sense of what it is to be a human being. This statement has been …

Quote Origin: I Had Exactly Four Seconds To Hot Up the Disintegrator, and Google Had Told Me It Wasn’t Enough

Raymond Chandler? Barry N. Malzberg? VladSavov? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Apparently, sometime during the 1950s a popular writer of detective fiction crafted a short passage parodying science fiction. Within the passage the word “Google” appeared long before the company Google existed. The passage displayed remarkable prescience. The word “Google” referred to an entity that …

Quote Origin: It’s Hard To Tell What Brings Happiness. Poverty and Wealth Have Both Failed

Kin Hubbard? Abe Martin? Beatrice Kaufman? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Poverty can cause unhappiness and despair. Yet, there is no easy solution to this human predicament because wealth does not guarantee joy and happiness. A popular humorist once stated: It’s hard to tell what brings happiness. Poverty and wealth have both failed. A remark …

Quote Origin: I Used To Be Indecisive, But Now I’m Not So Sure

Boscoe Pertwee? Umberto Eco? Christopher Hampton? Nigel Rees? Mario Cuomo? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Making definitive choices is arduous. A humorous expression reflects this predicament: I used to be indecisive, but now I’m not so sure. This quip has been attributed to Boscoe Pertwee who reportedly was an eighteenth-century wit, but I cannot find …

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