Art Is Anything You Can Get Away With

Marshall McLuhan? Quentin Fiore? Frank Richardson? Terence Trent D’Arby? Theodor W. Adorno? Dear Quote Investigator: In 2019 the Italian conceptual artist and provocateur Maurizio Cattelan used duct tape to attach a banana to the wall of an art gallery. He dubbed the resultant artwork “Comedian”. After Cattelan sold the quasi-sculpture for a lucrative price he …

No Snowflake in an Avalanche Ever Feels Responsible

Voltaire? George Burns? Paul Harvey? Stanisław Jerzy Lec? Percy Bysshe Shelley? Etaislaw Lee? Stanisław Leszczyński? Stanisław Lem? Jacek Galazka? Dear Quote Investigator: A mob or a mass movement can cause enormous destruction. Also, the inaction of a large apathetic group in a perilous time can lead to ruination. Yet, individuals disavow liability. Here are three …

I Prayed That God Would Emancipate Me, But It Was Not Till I Prayed With My Legs That I Was Emancipated

Frederick Douglass? Richard Theodore Greener? Samuel Byron Brittan? Rufus K. Noyes? James Clear? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: You must be willing to take constructive actions to resolve your own problems. If you rely solely on the help of others you will be disheartened. Also, if you depend solely on supernatural intervention you will be disappointed. …

Be Alone, That Is the Secret of Invention; Be Alone, That Is When Ideas Are Born

Nikola Tesla? Orrin E. Dunlap Jr.? Thomas P. Hughes? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: The famous inventor and futurist Nikola Tesla apparently said the following: Be alone, that is the secret of invention. Would you please help me to find a citation? Quote Investigator: In 1934 Nikola Tesla was interviewed in “The New York Times” by …

It Is Easier to Bamboozle People Than It Is To Unbamboozle Them

John Maynard Keynes? Norman Angell? Carter Field? Lionel Robbins? Malcolm W. Bingay? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: With time and effort it is possible to bamboozle people, i.e., to fool or mislead them. Unfortunately, this process of deception can be so thorough that it is impossible to debamboozle them, i.e., to convince them of the truth. …

I Have Seen Dark Hours in My Life, and I Have Seen the Darkness Gradually Disappearing and the Light Gradually Increasing

Frederick Douglass? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: The famous anti-slavery orator Frederick Douglass once stated that society was slowly improving. He believed that he was seeing “the darkness gradually disappearing and the light gradually increasing”. Would you please help me to find a citation? Quote Investigator: On October 22, 1890 “The Evening Star” newspaper of Washington …

I Destroy My Enemies When I Make Them My Friends

Abraham Lincoln? Emperor Sigismund? Martin Luther King? Loretta Young? Mark Twain? Cardinal Richelieu? Robert Jones Burdette? John Wooden? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: The leader of a victorious group decided to treat the vanquished people with compassion. Critics of the leader were unhappy because they believed that the enemies deserved destruction. Here are three versions of …

In the Short-Run, the Market Is a Voting Machine, But in the Long-Run, the Market Is a Weighing Machine

Benjamin Graham? Warren Buffett? Ronald A. McEachern? Ben Bidwell? John C. Bogle? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: A brilliant metaphorical framework for understanding the stock market can be summarized with the following cogent remark: In the short-run, the stock market is a voting machine. Yet, in the long-run, it is a weighing machine. Each purchase and …

All Parents Are Environmentalists Until They Have Their Second Child

Marvin Zuckerman? Kelvin L. Seifert? David T. Lykken? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: A child’s development is influenced by both nature and nurture, but there are deep disagreements about the relative importance of these two influences. In addition, there are different viewpoints concerning the interactions of nature and nurture. Consider the following saying: The parents of …

It Is Quite As Important To Know What Kind of a Patient the Disease Has Got As To Know What Kind of a Disease the Patient Has Got

William Osler? Caleb Hillier Parry? Henry George Plimmer? Woods Hutchinson? Walter Moxon? Albert Abrams? Hippocrates? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: In medicine it is crucial to identify the disease that afflicts the patient, but that is only one part of the full assessment. Determining the best treatment requires a careful examination of the history and the …