Tracing Quotations
Carl Sagan? Newsweek Reporters? Sharon Begley? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: Today on the website of a software developer I saw an inspiring quotation that was credited to the famous astronomer and science communicator Carl Sagan: Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known. I would like to use this quotation also, but I have not …
Continue reading “Somewhere, Something Incredible Is Waiting To Be Known”
George Bernard Shaw? Bertrand Russell? Oscar Wilde? John H. Gibbons? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: The following quotation is used by speakers who are planning to project a series of slides that are filled with statistics. The words are credited to the famous dramatist and intellectual George Bernard Shaw. Here are two versions: The sign of …
Continue reading “It Is the Mark of a Truly Intelligent Person To Be Moved By Statistics”
Field Marshal Douglas Haig? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: Horses were used effectively in warfare for thousands of years. On many occasions horse-mounted cavalry units were decisive on the battlefield. But the development of machine guns, barbed wire, and armored tanks dramatically changed military tactics. The quotation I am interested in has been ascribed to Sir …
Continue reading “Aeroplanes and Tanks Are Only Accessories to the Man and the Horse”
Dennis Gabor? Abraham Lincoln? Ilya Prigogine? Alan Kay? Steven Lisberger? Peter Drucker? Forrest C. Shaklee? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: I have seen several different versions of an adage about prediction and invention. Here are some examples: The future cannot be predicted, but futures can be invented. We cannot predict the future, but we can invent …
Continue reading “We Cannot Predict the Future, But We Can Invent It”
Mark Twain? Edwin E. Slosson? Harry Lloyd Miller? Professor Rathburn? Mortimer J. Adler? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Mark Twain is credited with a very funny description of college lectures. For some teachers and students I think this quotation is accurate: College is a place where a professor’s lecture notes go straight to the students’ lecture …
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Winston Churchill? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: My question is about a quotation spotlighted in a recent news story. Two massive power companies merged and this caused a boardroom battle. The CEO, Bill Johnson, of the combined enterprise was abruptly ousted. Johnson reportedly alienated his new board members by using a saying attributed to Winston Churchill. …
Continue reading “I Am Always Ready to Learn, Although I Do Not Always Like Being Taught”
Ray Bradbury? Franco Mancassola? Kurt Vonnegut? Annie Dillard? Anonymous? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: The influential publisher Tim O’Reilly recently tweeted a great quotation about entrepreneurship that was used in a commencement address given by DJ Patil, a Data Scientist at a venture capital company. Here is an excerpt from the speech given at the University …
Continue reading “Jump Off the Cliff and Build Your Wings on the Way Down”
John Forbes? René Laënnec? The Times of London? Anonymous? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: Sometimes the value and importance of an invention is misunderstood. Consider the following quotation about a newly introduced medical device in the 1800s: That it will ever come into general use, notwithstanding its value, is extremely doubtful; because its beneficial application requires …
Continue reading “Stethoscope: That It Will Ever Come Into General Use Is Extremely Doubtful”
Teachers’ Conference in 1703? The Rural American Teacher of 1929? Gene Zirkel? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: Everyone who works in the area formed by the intersection of education and technology has probably seen a hilarious collection of quotations that outlines the remarkable historical changes in education. Last month I saw these quotes, yet again, in …
Continue reading “Students Today Can’t Prepare Bark to Calculate Their Problems”
Ulysses S. Grant? Rutherford B. Hayes? Howard Pew? George Peck? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: A quotation about the telephone has been in the news recently because it was used in a speech by U.S. President Barack Obama. A widely-distributed anecdote asserted that Rutherford B. Hayes participated in a demonstration of the telephone when it was …
Continue reading “Great Invention, But Who Would Ever Want to Use One?”