Tracing Quotations
Dorothy Parker? Alexander Woollcott? Israel Zangwill? Oscar Wilde? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: The body and the soul separate at the time of death according to many religious systems. Hence, the idiom “keep body and soul together” refers to maintaining life, i.e., earning enough money to maintain health and activity. A quipster once reversed this formula …
Continue reading “Salary Is No Object; I Want Only Enough To Keep Body and Soul Apart”
Niels Bohr? Hans Bohr? Werner Heisenberg? Oscar Wilde? Emilio Segrè? Carl Sagan? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: A famous scientist once asserted something like this: The opposite of a deep truth is another deep truth. Would you please help me to find a citation and the correct phrasing? Quote Investigator: In 1949 the prominent physicist Niels …
Continue reading “Deep Truths Are Statements in Which the Opposite Also Contains Deep Truth”
Oscar Wilde? Niels Bohr? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: Sometimes a narrow logical analysis is not enough to understand a topic. In the realm of art, the negation of a truth may yield another truth. The famous wit Oscar Wilde once made a claim of this type. Would you please help me to find a citation. …
Continue reading “A Truth in Art Is That Whose Contradictory Is Also True”
Oscar Wilde? Robert Ross? Frank Harris? Hesketh Pearson? Josiah Flynt? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: According to legend, Oscar Wilde was resting with his eyes closed on his deathbed when two physicians began discussing the necessity of a very expensive operation to extend his life. Wilde opened his eyes and said: I suppose that I shall …
Continue reading “I Am Dying, As I Have Lived, Beyond My Means”
Oscar Wilde? Claire de Pratz? Léon Guillot de Saix? Lady Gregory? William Butler Yeats? Hesketh Pearson? Philippe Jullian? Violet Wyndham? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: Near the end of Oscar Wilde’s life he was debt-ridden and ill. His shabby accommodations in Paris did not meet his aesthetic standards. According to legend he said something similar to …
Continue reading “This Wallpaper Is Killing Me; One of Us Must Go”
Arthur James Balfour? Batman? Oscar Wilde? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Apparently, the crime-fighting superhero Batman is a quotation expert. I recall watching a rerun episode of the 1960s television series during which Batman was asked to identify the creator of an obscure quotation about biography, and he immediately answered correctly with the name Arthur James …
Continue reading “Biography Should Be Written by an Acute Enemy”
Oscar Wilde? Arthur Pendenys? Arthur James Balfour? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: An ill-intentioned biography is indistinguishable from a character assassination. The famous wit Oscar Wilde crafted a pertinent line on this topic. Here are three versions: Every great man nowadays has his disciples, and …it is usually Judas who writes the biography. …it is invariably …
Oscar Wilde? Felix Grendon? Percy Colson? Walter Winchell? Reader’s Digest? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: A well-known moral injunction states that one should forgive one’s enemies. A humorous twist suggests that one should grant forgiveness because it produces annoyance in one’s adversaries. This notion has been attributed to the famous wit Oscar Wilde. Would you please …
Continue reading “Always Forgive Your Enemies; Nothing Annoys Them So Much”
Oscar Wilde? Lloyd Lewis? Henry Justin Smith? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: The famous wit Oscar Wilde apparently expressed some forward thinking ideas about the environment. He believed that the natural world should be preserved so that it can be conveyed to our children in the condition it was received. Would you please help me to …
Oscar Wilde? Ada Leverson? Hesketh Pearson? Leslie Stokes? Sewell Stokes? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: Charles Dickens published “The Old Curiosity Shop” in 1841. Nell Trent (Little Nell) was the virtuous child protagonist of the tale. The book was extremely popular, and most contemporary readers were saddened when they learned of Nell’s demise. Yet, some critics …
Continue reading “One Must Have a Heart of Stone To Read the Death of Little Nell Without Laughing”