Quote Investigator® – Page 18

Quote Origin: There May Be a Great Fire In Our Soul, Yet No One Ever Comes To Warm Themselves At It. Passers-By See Only a Wisp of Smoke from a Chimney

Vincent van Gogh? Joni Mitchell? Justin Lee Collins? Nellie Hermann? Apocryphal?

Burning logs in a fireplace from Unsplash

Question for Quote Investigator: A personal website enables an artist to achieve inexpensive worldwide distribution of a large digital portfolio. Yet, the greatest challenge for an artist today is convincing others to pay attention to their artworks.

In the late nineteenth century an artist who later became famous experienced this same problem of bleak obscurity. The artist lamented that there was a great fire in his soul, but others were unaware. No one chose to warm themselves at this fire. This notion has been attributed to the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh. Would you please help me to find a citation?

Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1880 Vincent van Gogh penned a letter in French to his brother Theo. The following excerpt rendered into English is from the 1978 edition of “The Complete Letters of Vincent van Gogh”. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:¹

Do our inner thoughts ever show outwardly? There may be a great fire in our soul, yet no one ever comes to warm himself at it, and the passers-by see only a wisp of smoke coming through the chimney, and go along their way.

Look here, now, what must be done? Must one tend that inner fire, have salt in oneself, wait patiently yet with how much impatience for the hour when somebody will come and sit down near it—maybe to stay? Let him who believes in God wait for the hour that will come sooner or later.

The mention of salt corresponds to the biblical verse Mark 9:50. In this case, it means energizing oneself and persevering.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: We Are All Such a Waste of Our Potential, Like Three-Way Lamps Using One-Way Bulbs

Mignon McLaughlin? Derric Johnson? Anonymous?

Light bulb image from Alessandro Bianchi at Unsplash.

Question for Quote Investigator: A clever author once compared the unfulfilled potential of a human to a three-way light fixture which contains a one-way light bulb that never shines with its maximum luminance. Would you please help me to determine the name of the author who crafted this simile?

Reply from Quote Investigator: Mignon McLaughlin was a writer and editor at magazines such as “The Atlantic Monthly”, “Glamour”, and “Vogue” for four decades from the 1940s to the 1970s. In 1963 she published “The Neurotic’s Notebook” which contained miscellaneous aphorisms such as the following three statements. Boldface added to excepts by QI:¹

Hope is the feeling we have that the feeling we have is not permanent.

We are all such a waste of our potential, like three-way lamps using one-way bulbs.

The know-nothings are, unfortunately, seldom the do-nothings.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: The Book Publishing Industry Is Going To Be Wiped Off the Face of the Earth Soon

Matthew Yglesias? William Deresiewicz? Apocryphal?

Illustration of books on shelves from Unsplash

Question for Quote Investigator: Predicting the technological future is extremely difficult. In 2007 Amazon corporation introduced the Kindle ebook reader, and ebooks grew rapidly in popularity during the following years. Commentators envisioned dramatic upheavals in the book world.

One influential pundit projected that publishers were going to be wiped out. This imminent development was depicted favorably. Would you please help me to find a citation?

Reply from Quote Investigator: In November 2014 journalist Matthew Yglesias published a piece on the “Vox” website titled “Amazon is doing the world a favor by crushing book publishers”. Yglesias noted that a long-running conflict between Amazon and the book publisher Hachette had been settled. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:¹

This brings months of sniping to an end, but the structural conflict between publishers and the retail giant isn’t going away. And here’s a little real talk about the book publishing industry — it adds almost no value, it is going to be wiped off the face of the earth soon, and writers and readers will be better off for it.

The fundamental uselessness of book publishers is why I thought it was dumb of the Department of Justice to even bother prosecuting them for their flagrantly illegal cartel behavior a couple of years back …

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: Sometimes Our Inner Fire Goes Out. Another Person Rekindles It and Deserves Our Deepest Gratitude

Albert Schweitzer? Jim Valvano? Erica Anderson? C. T. Campion? Apocryphal?

Picture of a fire next to a lake from Unsplash

Question for Quote Investigator: Maintaining a high level of enthusiasm and motivation is difficult. Sometimes our inner fire starts to sputter. Happily, this fire can be reignited by an experience with another person. We owe that person our deep thanks.

Apparently, Alsatian physician and humanitarian Albert Schweitzer said something like this, but I have been unable to find a citation. Would you please help?

Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1924 Albert Schweitzer published “Aus meiner Kindheit und Jugendzeit” (“Memoirs of Childhood and Youth”). The following passage translated by C. T. Campion from German to English discussed igniting and reigniting an inner fire. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:¹

As a rule there are in everyone all sorts of good ideas, ready like tinder. But much of this tinder catches fire, or catches it successfully, only when it meets some flame or spark from outside, i.e. from some other person. Often, too, our own light goes out, and is rekindled by some experience we go through with a fellow-man. Thus we have each of us cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flames within us.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: Nothing Is More Powerful Than an Idea Whose Time Has Come

Victor Hugo? Émile Souvestre? Gustave Aimard? Frederic C. Howe? Ralph Waldo Trine? Benjamin Disraeli? Anonymous?

Illuminated lightbulb representing an idea

Question for Quote Investigator: An idea can transform a culture and catalyze historical changes. Here are three expressions from a family of pertinent sayings:

(1) Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.
(2) Nothing can stand against the idea whose time has come.
(3) No army can withstand the strength of an idea whose time has come.

Sayings of this type have been attributed to the famous French novelist Victor Hugo, but I have been unable to find a solid citation. Would you please explore this topic.

Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1877 Victor Hugo published “Histoire d’un crime” (“The History of a Crime”) which discussed the coup d’état staged by Louis-Napoléon Bonapart. The work contained a thematically germane statement. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:¹

Tout le phénomène actuel est dans ces quelques mots. On résiste à l’invasion des armées; on ne résiste pas à l’invasion des idées.

Here is one possible translation:

The whole current phenomenon is summed up in these few words. An invasion of armies can be resisted; an invasion of ideas cannot be resisted.

Interestingly, the above statement was not a close match to the modern instances of the saying attributed to Victor Hugo. QI believes that the family of sayings evolved over time. The earliest member of the family located by QI appeared in the periodical “Revue des deux mondes” (“Two Worlds Review”) in 1848 within an article by French novelist Émile Souvestre:²

Or, dans toute question humaine, il y a quelque chose de plus puissant que la force, que le courage, que le génie même: c’est l’idée dont le temps est venu.

Here is one possible translation:

Now, in every human question, there is something more powerful than strength, than courage, than genius itself: it is the idea whose time has come.

Souvestre was writing about the Chouannerie, a complex uprising in France. Souvestre believed that the forces he favored would ultimately prevail.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: Predicted Nine Out of the Last Five Recessions

Paul Samuelson? Economists? Wall Street Indexes? Katharyn Duff? Lawrence Summers? Niall Ferguson?

Question for Quote Investigator: Predicting the fluctuations of the economy is enormously difficult. Many economists have forecast recessions that never occurred. Here are three comical expressions:

(1) Economists have predicted 11 of the last 5 recessions.
(2) The markets projected twelve of the last eight recessions.
(3) Wall Street indexes predicted nine out of the last five recessions.

Would you please explore the provenance of this family of quips?

Reply from Quote Investigator: The earliest match known to QI appeared in “Newsweek” magazine in September 1966 within a column by prominent U.S. economist Paul Samuelson. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:¹

… stock prices do show more ups and downs than gross national product or business indicators generally. To prove that Wall Street is an early omen of movements still to come in GNP, commentators quote economic studies alleging that market downturns predicted four out of the last five recessions. That is an understatement. Wall Street indexes predicted nine out of the last five recessions! And its mistakes were beauties.

QI conjectures that Samuelson’s remark initiated an efflorescence of related comments which appeared during subsequent months and years.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: Please Accept Our Apologies. We Were Roaring Drunk On Petroleum

Kurt Vonnegut? Jacqueline Blais? Apocryphal?

Question for Quote Investigator: A prominent writer was unhappy that the world was not rapidly phasing out the use of fossil fuels. So the wit wrote a sardonic explanation for future generations. Here are two versions:

(1) We were roaring drunk on petroleum.
(2) We were rolling drunk on petroleum.

These words have been attributed to U.S. novelist and essayist Kurt Vonnegut. Would you please help me to find a citation and to determine the correct phrasing?

Reply from Quote Investigator: Kurt Vonnegut expressed this idea on multiple occasions. In February 2006 Vonnegut attended the Connecticut Forum in Hartford Connecticut, and he participated in a panel discussion with fellow writers. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:¹

Asked about a reference in his most recent book to the world’s dependence on oil, he offered this message to future generations: “Please accept our apologies. We were roaring drunk on petroleum. … My reading of history [is] the only fun most human beings have ever had … has been driving automobiles. … Eventually we will run out of fossil fuels. I think the world is ending.”

Thus, Kurt Vonnegut deserves credit for this saying. The ellipses above appeared in the original newspaper text.

The variant with “rolling” instead of “roaring” entered circulation by 2008, but Vonnegut died in 2007, and QI has found no direct evidence that he employed the variant.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: Writing, At Least a Craft and At Its Best an Art, Aspiring To the Unique, Is the Most Difficult of All To Learn

Jacques Barzun? Morris Philipson? Apocryphal?

Vermeer’s painting of “Lady Writing a Letter with Her Maid”

Question for Quote Investigator: There are several roles in the domain of publishing. A prominent thinker has asserted that writing “is the most difficult of all to learn”. The thinker also said writing is “at least a craft and at its best an art”.

These remarks have been attributed to French-American historian Jacques Barzun and U.S. publisher Morris Philipson. I have not been able to find a citation. Who do you think deserves credit? Would you please help?

Reply from Quote Investigator: The answer to this inquiry reveals an intriguing misquotation mechanism. The quotation of interest was crafted by Morris Philipson who was the Director of The University of Chicago Press for more than thirty years. Philipson wrote the foreword to a collection of essays by Jacques Barzun titled “On Writing, Editing, and Publishing: Essays Explicative and Hortatory”.

The quotation appeared within the foreword, but QI conjectures that a careless person looked only at the name of the main author of the collection and assigned the quotation to Barzun. Here is an excerpt from the foreword by Philipson. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:¹

Publishing, being a business, offers the most objective conditions for teaching and for evaluating how successfully the trainee is learning his job; editing, too, less sharply defined but seeking to be a profession, offers some opportunities for knowing whether one is learning one’s trade; but writing, at least a craft and at its best an art, aspiring to the unique, is the most difficult of all to learn.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: Nothing That Makes Us Happy Is an Illusion

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe? Jules Verne? Friedrich Nietzsche? Apocryphal?

“Portrait of the Young Goethe” by Angelica Kauffmann circa 1787

Question for Quote Investigator: A character in a novel by the prominent German poet and novelist Johann Wolfgang von Goethe presented a radical stance on happiness and illusion. Here are two versions:

(1) Nothing which makes us happy is an illusion?
(2) Can that be a delusion which makes us happy?

The pioneering French science fiction author Jules Verne said something similar. Would you please help me to find precise citations?

Reply from Quote Investigator: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe published the epistolary novel “Die Leiden des jungen Werthers” (“The Sorrows of Young Werther”) in 1774. The main character Werther fell in love with Charlotte, but she was already committed to a relationship with Albert; hence, Werther’s connection to Charlotte was required to remain platonic.

During one episode in the novel, Werther sent a servant to speak with Charlotte. Goethe signaled Werther’s infatuation with Charlotte by describing his reaction to the servant upon his return. Werther felt joy by simply seeing the servant because he knew that Charlotte had also gazed upon the servant. Werther mentioned this unusual reaction to a friend named Wilhelm:¹

Es war mir so wohl in seiner Gegenwart — Bewahre dich Gott, daß du darüber nicht lachst Wilhelm, sind das Phantomen, wenn es uns wohl wird?

Here is one possible translation into English:

I felt so happy in his presence, God forbid that you should laugh at this Wilhelm, are these things phantasms if they make us feel good?

The following translation appeared in 1784:²

… I was so happy to see him! Beware of laughing at me, my good friend: nothing which makes us happy is an illusion.

In 1868 another translation appeared:³

His presence made me so happy! Beware of laughing at me, Wilhelm. Can that be a delusion which makes us happy?

Below are additional selected citations.

Quote Origin: I Don’t Think the Human Race Will Survive the Next Thousand Years, Unless We Spread Into Space

Stephen Hawking? Alvin Toffler? David Deutsch? Apocryphal?

Question for Quote Investigator: Humankind currently inhabits only one small fragile planet, and the perils on Earth continue to grow. A prominent physicist once insisted that humankind must expand into space in order to survive the next thousand years.

I am not sure of the exact phrasing. Would you please help me to determine the name of the physicist and the phrasing employed for this warning?

Reply from Quote Investigator: In 2001 “The Daily Telegraph” of London published an interview with cosmologist Stephen Hawking. He was asked about the threats facing humanity. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:¹

“… in the long term, I am more worried about biology. Nuclear weapons need large facilities, but genetic engineering can be done in a small lab. You can’t regulate every lab in the world.

“The danger is that either by accident or design, we create a virus that destroys us. I don’t think the human race will survive the next thousand years, unless we spread into space. There are too many accidents that can befall life on a single planet.”

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.