Tracing Quotations
Mark Twain? Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.? Alexandre Dumas fils? Lady Mary Wortley Montagu? Ellen Osborn? Manley H. Pike? Ben Johnson? Benjamin Disraeli? Alexander Chase? Roger O’Mara? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Making sweeping statements about the universe is difficult to resist, but exceptions seem to be unavoidable. The following comically paradoxical statement is popular. Here …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: No Generalization Is Wholly True—Not Even This One”
Robert Frost? Lillian Russell? Fliegende Blätter? Evan Esar? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: An old-fashioned quip about vanity and aging states that a diplomat always remembers a person’s birthday but never remembers a person’s age. This joke has been attributed to the famous U.S. poet Robert Frost, but I have been unable to find a …
John Updike? William W. West? Donald M. Murray? Catherine Ann Jones? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: An accomplished writer must constantly grapple with the difficulties of expressing events and ideas cogently with polish and precision. A famous prose stylist once illuminated the purpose of rewriting. Here are three versions: (1) Writing and rewriting are a …
G. K. Chesterton? Charles Poore? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Even the best writers occasionally pen passages of execrable prose. Apparently, a prominent author once made the following observation: You could compile the worst book in the world entirely out of selected passages from the best writers in the world. Would you please help me …
Albert Einstein? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Albert Einstein once spoke about his ideals which apparently included goodness, beauty, and truth. Would you please help me to find a citation? Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1930 the journal “Forum and Century” published a philosophical article by Albert Einstein titled “What I Believe”. Boldface added to …
Damien Hirst? Christo Javacheff? Jeanne-Claude Denat de Guillebon? William Quinn? Elizabeth Marr Goldman? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Harsh critics of readymade art, installation art, and other forms of modern art assert that the works are trivial. Skeptics also claim that only a miniscule amount of serious effort is required to conceive this type of …
Continue reading “Dialogue Origin: “I Could Have Done That” “Ahhh, But You Didn’t!””
Mickey Spillane? Hy Gardner? Frank Smikel? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Popular writers endure a litany of complaints directed at their prose, e.g., mediocre, clumsy, crude, uninteresting, and undemanding. A bestselling writer once employed a clever analogy to explain this antagonism. The writer contended that literary darlings were trying to market caviar, whereas popular writers …
Eleanor Roosevelt? Barbara De Angelis? Joan Rivers? Bill Keane? Emily Dickinson? Liz Curtis Higgs? Babatunde Olatunji? Susan Barkdoll? Nicholas L. Santowassa? Abigail Van Buren? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: A rhyming series of statements highlight the uncertainty of the future and the desirability of appreciating the present. Here are two versions: (1) The past is …
Jules Feiffer? Leonard Roy Frank? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Many years ago I encountered a comic strip presenting a humorous commentary about the modern condition. In a series of panels a person complained to a doctor about feeling overtired, anxious, depressed, and paranoid. The doctor simply replied that the person was perfectly normal. I …
Elbert Hubbard? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Anxiety about making a mistake can cause inaction and paralysis. Moving forward inevitably leads to some errors and imperfections. Yet it is necessary to make choices, take action, and fix the accompanying mistakes. Here is a pertinent adage: The greatest mistake is continually fearing you will make one. …