Tracing Quotations
Leonardo da Vinci? Clare Boothe Luce? Leonard Thiessen? Elizabeth Hillyer? William Gaddis? Eleanor All? Apple Computer Company? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: The following aphorism has often been attributed to the brilliant Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci: Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. Strangely, I have been unable to find any solid source for this ascription. Would …
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Marc Connelly? Nicholas Longworth? S. H. Hale? Franklin P. Adams? Apocryphal? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Recently I saw a list of the funniest ripostes, but it did not include the squelcher that I believe is the best. An unhappy card player wished to embarrass a bald man who was excelling. The disgruntled man placed his …
Continue reading “Your Bald Head Feels as Smooth as My Wife’s Cheek”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow? William Nevins? Stephen M. R. Covey? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: The way we judge ourselves often differs markedly from the way others judge us. We tend to evaluate ourselves based on what we are capable of doing, or what we intend to do, or what we say we will do. However, no …
Julian Huxley? H. L. Mencken? Lewis Browne? Eric Temple Bell? William James? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: The QI website has an article tracing a quip about a problematic absurdist quest: A metaphysician is a man who goes into a dark cellar at midnight without a light looking for a black cat that is not …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: The Philosopher, the Theologian, and the Elusive Black Cat”
Oscar Wilde? Margaret Butler? Geraldine Grove? Lord Chesterfield? John Wayne? Christopher Hitchens? John Cleese? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Books of etiquette once provided a definition of a gentleman that included the following assertion: A gentleman never insults anyone intentionally. The clever addition of a two-letter prefix humorously spun the definition: A gentleman never insults anyone …
Continue reading “A Gentleman Is a Man Who Never Gives Offense Unintentionally”
Benjamin Franklin? Dorothy Canfield Fisher? Arthur Wing Pinero? Abigail Van Buren? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: I recently saw an illustration of two people embracing above the following caption: Those who love deeply never grow old; they may die of old age, but they die young. At least three different people have been credited with …
Samuel Johnson? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: Whenever I experience difficulties while writing I recall a remark attributed to Samuel Johnson that is both cautionary and encouraging: What is written without effort is in general read without pleasure. I have not been able to find this statement in a book written by Johnson or by his …
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Dorothy Parker? Lillian Hellman? Ford Model T Label? Frank Sullivan? Apocryphal? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: The witty author Dorothy Parker was once asked to suggest an epitaph for her tombstone. Over the years she crafted several different candidates, and I am interested in the following saying which can be expressed in multiple ways: If you …
Continue reading “If You Can Read This, You’ve Come Too Close”
Dorothy Parker? George R. R. Martin? Frank Norris? Robert Louis Stevenson? Cornelia Otis Skinner? Clive Barnes? Jack Klugman? Gloria Steinem? Hedley Donovan? Dear Quote Investigator: Writing is an arduous task for many skilled authors. There is a popular family of sayings that contrasts the elation of accomplishment with the struggle of composition: 1) I hate …
Continue reading “Don’t Like to Write, But Like Having Written”
Queen Victoria? Lucy Baldwin? Pierre Daninos? Lady Hillingham? Lady Hillingdon? Jonathan Gathorne-Hardy? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: There is a well-known though unreliable anecdote about the guidance offered to brides in the repressive Victorian era. Supposedly, Queen Victoria was asked by one of her newly married daughters about possible carnal activities in the marriage bed. Here …
Continue reading “Just Close Your Eyes and Think of England”