Tracing Quotations
Howard Rheingold? John Gilmore? Michael Sattler? Philip Elmer-DeWitt? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Modern communication systems are designed to distribute messages even when some connections and modules are damaged. This resilience inspired an adage in the 1990s about the suppression of information. Here are two versions: The net views censorship as damage and routes around it. …
Continue reading “The Net Interprets Censorship As Damage and Routes Around It”
Howard Thurman? Gil Bailie? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: If you are an altruistic or philanthropic person you face many choices. It is natural to ask, “What does the world need?” Yet, it is essential to maintain commitment and enthusiasm. Hence, you should ask yourself what makes you come alive. This will help you decide what …
Stanley Baldwin? Rudyard Kipling? Arthur W. Baldwin? Benjamin Disraeli? Tom Stoppard? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: In the 1930s British politician Stanley Baldwin reacted with anger when he read a claim that he considered defamatory in the pages of a popular newspaper. Shortly afterward he delivered a speech accusing the U.K. press barons of wielding power …
Continue reading “Power Without Responsibility — The Prerogative of the Harlot Throughout the Ages”
Alexander McLaren? Charles Haddon Spurgeon? Ian Maclaren? Corrie ten Boom? Dear Quote Investigator: Excessive fear and worry about the future can weaken the resolve needed to thrive. Here are three versions of a pertinent saying: (1) Anxiety does not empty tomorrow of its sorrows, but only empties today of its strength. (2) Anxiety does not …
Continue reading “Anxiety Does Not Empty Tomorrow of Its Sorrows; It Empties Today of Its Strength”
Philip Sheridan? H. L. Mencken? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: Texas is a beloved state to many, but it also has detractors. One comical remark compares the state unfavorably to Hades: If I owned Hell and Texas, I’d rent out Texas and live in Hell. Would you please explore the provenance of this joke? Quote Investigator: …
Continue reading “If I Owned Hell and Texas, I Would Rent Texas and Live at the Other Place”
Robert Louis Stevenson? William Arthur Ward? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: An eloquent agricultural metaphor occurs within an astute proverb about the value of preparation and investment: Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds you plant. The prominent Scottish novelist Robert Louis Stevenson has received credit for this saying, but …
Continue reading “Judge Each Day Not By the Harvest You Reap But By the Seeds You Plant”
George Bernard Shaw? Gladys Bronwyn Stern? W. H. H. MacKellar? Gil Stern? Mack McGinnis? Dear Quote Investigator: An entertaining quip contrasts the attitudes of the dreamer and the worrier: Optimists invent airplanes; pessimists invent parachutes. This saying has been attributed to Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw and English author Gladys Bronwyn Stern. Would you please …
Continue reading “The Optimist Invents the Airplane and the Pessimist the Parachute”
Robert Frost? G. K. Chesterton? Eleanor Graham Vance? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: The prominent poet Robert Frost did not compose free verse. Instead, he welcomed the structural demands of rhyme and meter. To explicate his choice he used a clever and vivid simile from the domain of tennis. Would you please help me to find …
Continue reading “Composing Free Verse Is Like Playing Tennis Without a Net”
William James? Harry Granison Hill? Joseph Fort Newton? Norman Vincent Peale? E. Stanley Jones? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: One’s attitude toward life has an enormous effect on one’s experiences in life. Here are two statements on this theme: (1) The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering …
Samuel Butler? Frances Burney? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: Force can be used to compel a person to exhibit a specific behavior, but it is much more difficult to change the mind of a person. Compliance does not denote mental submission. The 17th-century poet Samuel Butler composed a couplet expressing this notion. Would you please help …
Continue reading “He That Complies Against His Will, Is of His Own Opinion Still”