Tracing Quotations
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 …
Continue reading “Saying Origin: Socialize the Costs and Privatize the Profits”
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 …
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 saveâ€. 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 …
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, …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Sooner or Later We All Sit Down To the Banquet of Consequences”
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 …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: I Regard the Theater as the Greatest of All Art Forms”
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 …
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 …
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 …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: I Used To Be Indecisive, But Now I’m Not So Sure”
Ethel Smyth? William Booth? C. S. Lewis? W. H. Auden? Benjamin Harrison? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Newspapers have produced hilarious statements due to misprints. According to an entertaining anecdote, a prominent religious figure once visited a town, and the local periodical reported: After his train had left the station a large crow remained on …
Jean Paul? Johann Paul Friedrich Richter? Charles T. Brooks? H. L. Mencken? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The experience of a birthday inspires philosophical reveries in some older people. Apparently, a literary figure once wrote: Birthdays are feathers in the broad wing of time. This statement has been credited to the German Romantic writer Johann …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Birthdays Are Feathers in the Broad Wing of Time”