Tracing Quotations
Wilson Mizner? Samuel Thomas Hauser? Edward O. Wolcott? Silver Dick? Anonymous? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A self-satisfied gambler once approached a poker table and asked to join the game. The dealer shook his head while saying, “This game is probably too big for you”. The irritated gambler placed ten large denomination bills on the …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Give the Gentleman One White Chip”
Mark Twain? Groucho Marx? Wilson Mizner? Sydney J. Harris? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: A funny man once said that he was embarrassed to discover that his behavior had always been scandalous; he had been born in bed with a lady. This line has been connected to Mark Twain, Groucho Marx, and Wilson Mizner. Would …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: To My Embarrassment I Was Born in Bed with a Lady”
Creator: Wilson Mizner, playwright, entrepreneur, adventurer Context: Mizner died in 1933. A biography of his colorful life appeared in 1935 called “The Fabulous Wilson Mizner” by Edward Dean Sullivan. The chapter “Miznerisms” was dedicated to his witticisms. Here were three. Emphasis added to excerpts: I am a stylist—and the most beautiful sentence I have ever …
Wilson Mizner? Addison Mizner? Douglas Malloch? Louis Ginsberg? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: An adage from antiquity asserts that a great poet must have an inborn talent that cannot be taught or feigned: A poet is born, not made. The dire financial condition of the market for poetry has inspired a humorously modified expression: A …
Dorothy Parker? Wilson Mizner? Apocryphal? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Calvin Coolidge was the 30th President of the United States, and his highly reserved character in social settings led to the nickname “Silent Cal”. A few years after his death in 1933 two similar anecdotes began to circulate about the spoken reaction to the news …
Continue reading “Dialogue Origin: “He Is Dead.” “How Can They Tell?””
Voltaire? Niccolò Machiavelli? Newgate Prisoner? Wilson Mizner? Dying Irishman? Canny Scot? Aging Rock Star? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: While reading speeches given by Nobel Prize recipients I came across an entertaining anecdote about Voltaire from the eminent economist Robert E. Lucas: When Voltaire was dying, in his eighties, a priest in attendance called upon …
Continue reading “Origin of Deathbed Remark: This Is No Time To Be Making New Enemies”
The blog entry for the saying “If You Steal From One Author, It’s Plagiarism; If You Steal From Many, It’s Research” has now been updated. The entry you are currently reading is a stub. Please visit the updated article.
Jimmy Durante? Wilson Mizner? Walter Winchell? George Raft? Question for Quote Investigator: Sometimes clichés become clichés because they express important truths. I think this is an example: Be nice to those you meet on the way up because you will meet them on the way down Can you determine who first came up with this …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Be Nice to People on Your Way Up. You’ll Meet Them On Your Way Down”
Wilson Mizner? Steven Wright? Wallace Notestein? Ralph Foss? Joseph Cummings Chase? Asa George Baker? Leslie Henson? Tom Lehrer? Bob Oliver? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Some of the websites I come across seem to produce their content by using cut and paste. They do not even bother to collect information from multiple sources. I am …