Tracing Quotations
Kurt Vonnegut? Frank Sinatra? Jean-Paul Sartre? Dale Carnegie? Bud Crew? Socrates? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: The 1982 novel “Deadeye Dick” by the popular author Kurt Vonnegut mentioned the following piece of graffiti: “To be is to do”—Socrates. “To do is to be”—Jean-Paul Sartre. “Do be do be do”—Frank Sinatra. I think this tripartite list first …
Continue reading ““To Be Is To Do” “To Do Is To Be” “Do Be Do Be Do””
Honoré de Balzac? Mario Puzo? Pierre Mille? Frank P. Walsh? Samuel Merwin? James Henry Yoxall? C. Wright Mills? Jane Bryant Quinn? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: The popular 1969 novel “The Godfather” by Mario Puzo recounted the violent tale of a Mafia family, and the epigraph selected by the author was fascinating: Behind every great fortune …
Continue reading “Behind Every Great Fortune There Is a Crime”
Oscar Wilde? James McNeill Whistler? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: I would like to learn more about a famous anecdote involving James McNeill Whistler, the painter who is known for his iconic portrait of his mother. Apparently, Whistler was able to trump Oscar Wilde, one of the greatest wits of the nineteenth century who was …
Continue reading ““I Wish I Had Said That” “You Will, Oscar, You Will””
Frank Lloyd Wright? William Faulkner? The Elder Gross? Charles Seiberling? Charles Douville Coburn? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: The celebrated and innovative architect Frank Lloyd Wright is credited with the following remark about alcohol consumption: A man is a fool if he drinks before he reaches the age of 50, and a fool if he doesn’t …
Oscar Wilde? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: I saw an article on the web about brilliant repartee that listed the “Top 10 Best Comebacks”. One of the response lines was from the famous wit Oscar Wilde who addressed an audience from the stage after the performance of a play he had written. The acclamation for his …
Continue reading “Every Time I Smell It, I Shall Be Reminded of You”
Mae West? Aristophanes? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: Screenwriter and sex symbol Mae West is usually credited with the following ribald line: Is that a pistol in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me? But I have seen many variations of this comical remark: Is that your pipe in your pocket or are …
Continue reading “Is That a Gun in Your Pocket, or Are You Just Glad to See Me?”
Henry Kissinger? Wallace Sayre? Charles Frankel? Samuel Johnson? Jesse Unruh? Courtney Brown? Laurence J. Peter? Dear Quote Investigator: The following saying is often attributed to the prominent U.S. foreign policy figure and Nobel laureate Henry Kissinger: Academic politics are so vicious precisely because the stakes are so small. But I have also seen it attributed …
Continue reading “Academic Politics Are So Vicious Because the Stakes Are So Small”
Voltaire? Niccolò Machiavelli? Wilson Mizner? Dying Irishman? Canny Scot? Aging Rock Star? Apocryphal? Dear 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:[ref] 1995 December 10, Speech at Banquet for the Nobel Prize Award by Robert E. Lucas, Jr., …
Continue reading “Deathbed Remark: This Is No Time To Be Making New Enemies”
Yogi Berra? Simone Signoret? Peter De Vries? Tommy Handley & Ronald Frankau? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Holidays sometimes make me nostalgic. They also remind me of the following clever quip: Nostalgia ain’t what it used to be. These words are often attributed to the famed baseball quotemaster Yogi Berra, but recently I learned of an …
Mark Twain? Albert Bigelow Paine? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: Mark Twain formulated a wonderful expression about the fallibility of memory as one grows older. Here is the beginning of his humorous saying: When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not. My own memory may be failing because I think …
Continue reading “When I Was Younger, I Could Remember Anything, Whether It Had Happened or Not”