Edward Hulse? Leewin B. Williams? Viola Brothers Shore? Arthur Godfrey? Walter Winchell? Anonymous?
Minimalist illustration of a bowing figure representing humility
Question for Quote Investigator: The feeling of humility is paradoxical. The instant you become self-aware and proud of your humility, it disappears. This thought has been stated as follows:
Humility is a strange thing. The moment you think you’ve got it, you’ve lost it.
Sir Edward Hulse has received credit for this expression, but I am skeptical of this attribution because I have never seen a solid citation. Would you please explore this topic?
Reply from Quote Investigator: Sir Edward Hulse, 6th Baronet, died in 1903. The 7th Baronet died in 1915. QI has found no substantive evidence that either employed this saying. The earliest match found by QI appeared in a 1938 work titled “Master Book of Humorous Illustrations” compiled and edited by Leewin B. Williams. This book contained thousands of brief passages about miscellaneous topics. The following sentence appeared at the top of a page without attribution:1
“Humility is that strange thing that the moment you think you have it, you have lost it.”
QI believes that the creator remains anonymous. QI conjectures that the attribution to Sir Edward Hulse resulted from a naming confusion. A different person named E. D. Hulse was linked to the saying via a religious periodical in 1967. See the details further below.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
Walter Kerr? Jean Kerr? Caroline A. Lejeune? Dorothy Parker? Walter Winchell? Goodman Ace? Clare Boothe Luce? Alexander Woollcott? Kenneth Tynan?
Picture of a Leica camera from Unsplash
Question for Quote Investigator: A famous one-line theater review employed a horrible pun. Many people have been credited with this pun, but I have never seen any solid evidence.
The target of the review was the 1951 Broadway play “I Am a Camera” by John Van Druten which was adapted from Christopher Isherwood’s 1939 novel “Goodbye to Berlin”. The two-word appraisal simply stated: “No Leica”. This wordplay was based on the pronunciation “like-a” for the German camera company Leica.
Drama critics Walter Kerr, Caroline Lejeune, and Kenneth Tynan have all received credit for this pun. In addition, the joke has been attributed to witty writers such as Dorothy Parker, Jean Kerr, and Goodman Ace. Would you please explore this topic?
Reply from Quote Investigator: The earliest close match known to QI appeared in the widely syndicated newspaper column of Walter Winchell in December 1951. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
Goodman Ace’s capsule criticism of the play, “I Am a Camera”: “No Leica!” … (Sorry, folks. These Are The Jokes!).
Based on current knowledge QI believes that U.S. humorist Goodman Ace deserves credit for this joke. Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
Glenn Curtiss? Angelo Donghia? Stephen Robbins? Eugene Lewis Fordsworthe? Caroline Leaf Carol? Bill Gatter? Anonymous?
Train wreck disaster in 1895 at Montparnasse in Paris, France
Question for Quote Investigator: Relying on false assumptions leads to serious blunders. Here are two versions of a pertinent adage:
(1) Assumption is the mother of all mistakes. (2) Assumption is the mother of all screw-ups.
This saying has been attributed to U.S. interior designer Angelo Donghia, U.S. military parachutist Bill Gatter, and others. Would you please explore the provenance of this maxim?
Reply from Quote Investigator: There are several versions of this saying which makes it difficult to trace. The earliest match found by QI appeared in “The Sun” newspaper of Baltimore, Maryland in July 1972. A political operative in a U.S. presidential campaign employed the saying. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
They would not be traveling anywhere if it were not for Stephen Robbins, 30, the chief advance and scheduling man, who breezily advises his even younger aides: “Don’t assume: assumption is the mother of foul-ups.”
The above citation suggests that Stephen Robbins may have coined the adage, but QI believes it is more likely that the saying was already in circulation, and the creator was anonymous. Future researchers may uncover earlier evidence.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
St. Augustine of Hippo? Louis-Charles Fougeret de Monbron? Lord Byron? St. Austin? Stendhal? Richard Lassels?
Picture showing a wooden boat moving toward a mountain from Unsplash
Question for Quote Investigator: The following popular saying about travel praises the knowledge gained from visiting multiple locations:
The world is a book, and those who don’t travel read only one page.
This statement is usually attributed to St. Augustine of Hippo. But it has also been credited to French writer Louis-Charles Fougeret de Monbron, English poet Lord Byron, and others. I have never seen a solid citation. Would you please explore this topic?
Reply from Quote Investigator: QI and other researchers have located no substantive evidence supporting the attribution to St. Augustine of Hippo. The earliest match found by QI appeared in the 1670 book “The Voyage of Italy: or A Compleat Journey through Italy” by English travel writer and tutor Richard Lassels. The preface contained the following passage. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
… the Profit of Travelling; it’s certain, that if this world be a great book, as S. Augustine calls it, none study this great Book so much as the Traveler. They that never stir from home, read only one page of this Book; and like the dull fellow in Pliny, who could never learn to count farther than five, they dwell alwayes upon one Lesson.
They are like an acquaintance of mine, who had alwayes a book indeed lying open upon a Desk; but it was observed that it lay alwayes open at one and the same place, and by long custome, could lye open no where else.
Richard Lassels credited Saint Augustine with the metaphorical notion that the world is a book. However, QI believes that Lassels deserves credit for the full statement which equates staying in one place to reading a single page of this world book. QI conjectures that later readers misread the passage above and incorrectly attributed the full statement to Saint Augustine.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
Mark Twain?John W. Casto? Maturin M. Ballou? Apocryphal?
Picture of Earth taken by Apollo 17 crew
Question for Quote Investigator: Mark Twain traveled widely, and he wrote about his experiences in the books “The Innocents Abroad” and “Following the Equator”. Twain believed that travel broadened the mind and reduced prejudices. Would you please help me to find a quotation in which he expressed this idea?
Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1869 Mark Twain published “The Innocents Abroad or The New Pilgrims’ Progress”. The conclusory section contained the following passage:1
Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things can not be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
Patrick O’Connor? Stella Adler? Edward Fuller? Elizabeth Hodgson? Irving Babbitt? Margaret Harford? Jed Harris? Anonymous?
Picture of books containing works by famous dead authors
Question for Quote Investigator: Living authors are often viewed with a mixture of suspicion and aggravation. Here are three versions of a pertinent adage:
(1) The only good author is a dead author. (2) All good authors are dead authors. (3) The best author is a dead author.
Interestingly, this adage has two different meanings. Publishers and editors use the adage to encapsulate a collection of complaints about writers, e.g., late manuscripts, poor quality writing, and exorbitant monetary demands.
Academics and critics use the adage to signal that a delay is required when evaluating the worthiness of a writer. Typically, the quality, impact, and longevity of a literary oeuvre can only be accurately judged many years after the author has died.
Would you please explore the provenance of this adage?
Reply from Quote Investigator: The earliest match found by QI in the domain of publishing and editing appeared on September 29, 1886. Anonymous editors received credit. The earliest match in the domain of criticism and academia appeared on May 29, 1895. The attribution was anonymous. Here is an overview showing selected examples together with dates and attributions:
1886 Sep 29: … they will not pay a man for manuscript unless he will agree to die before it is put in print. This precaution is taken so that the author can’t come in afterward and “cuss” about the bad proofreading. Also on the theory that the only really good author is a dead one. (Attributed to anonymous “western editors”)
1895 May 29: We must not conclude that all good books are old books, nor that all good authors are dead authors. (Anonymous)
1903 Feb: It is unnecessary to assume, of course, that the only good authors are dead authors. Undue depreciation of the literature of the day may be quite as futile as undue approval … (Edward Fuller)
1906 Sep 20: From the teacher’s point of view one is tempted to lay down the rule that the only good authors are dead authors. (Irving Babbitt)
1916 Apr 22: It is a mistake to suppose that the only good authors are dead ones. Some colleges have fostered the idea that literary genius is extinct. (A. S. Mackenzie)
1919 May: They were often bookworms that had bored their way through countless musty volumes, it being their first axiom that the only good author is a dead author. (Attitude ascribed to “old college professors” by Elizabeth Hodgson)
1921 May: There have always been—there will always be—people like Mr. Knox, who feel that the only good author is a dead author, and the only good story an unpopular story. (Attitude ascribed to Vicesimus Knox by an unnamed writer)
1941 Mar 19: The best author is a dead author—at least from the point of view of scholarship. (Attributed to William Y. Tindall)
1958 Jan 10: The only good author is a dead author. (Attributed to Jed Harris by Thornton Wilder)
1970 Apr 19: Ignoring the old saw that “the best author is a dead author,” playwright Brian Friel showed up, very much alive, to maneuver some minor, last-minute changes in his new play, “Crystal & Fox”. (“Old saw” according to Margaret Harford)
1971: When a publisher says that the best authors are dead authors, he means that the latter cannot torment him by being late with their manuscripts, demanding more money, threatening to go off to another publisher, or telephoning him in the middle of the night. (Publisher’s saying according to Anthony Blond)
1972 Spring: Students of twentieth century literature are familiar with the classical position of Academia: namely, the only good author is a dead author. (“Classical position of Academia” according to Eugenia N. Zimmerman)
1975 May 4: We have a motto. It’s that the only good author is a dead author. (“A motto” according to Patrick O’Connor)
1993 Aug 23: The only good author is one who’s been dead at least 100 years. (Attributed to anonymous education reformers)
2008 May 29: The best author is a dead author. He can’t stand around at the rehearsals, watching and making everybody nervous. (Attributed to Stella Adler by Barry Paris)
Below are details for selected citations in chronological order.
Mark Twain? Punch magazine? James T. Fields? William P. Clyde? Walt Mason? Anonymous?
Question for Quote Investigator: Apparently, an effusive admirer of Mark Twain once proclaimed that the famous humorist deserved membership in the pantheon of major writers. Twain’s comical response highlighted his mortality:
I was sorry to have my name mentioned as one of the great authors, because they have a sad habit of dying off. Chaucer is dead, Spencer is dead, so is Milton, so is Shakespeare, and I am not feeling very well myself.
I do not think Mark Twain originated this joke template. A family of similar jokes appeared before Twain received credit. Would you please explore this topic?
Reply from Quote Investigator: There is substantive evidence that Mark Twain employed this type of quip during the 1890s; however, the first recorded instances in this family occurred in the 1870s, and Twain did not receive credit. Here is an overview showing selected examples together with dates and attributions:
1874 Feb 18: Our greatest men are fast departing—first Calhoun, then Clay, and now Webster—and I don’t feel very well myself. (Attributed to an unnamed rural politician)
1874 May 14: Our great men are fast departing—first Greeley, then Chase, and now Sumner—and I don’t feel very well myself. (Attributed to an unnamed member of a Boston school committee)
1874 Jun 17: Our great men are fast departing. First Stanton, then Chase, then Seward, and now Sumner—and I don’t feel very well myself. (Attributed to an unnamed member of a New York literary club)
1883 Mar 10: It is very sad, indeed, to think on the number of the world’s greatest men who have lately been called to their last account. And the fact is I don’t feel very well myself. (Attributed to an unnamed Scotchman)
1884 May 10: The great men are all dead. Washington is dead; Jefferson is dead, and so are Jackson and Clay and Webster, all gone, and—ahem! I don’t feel well myself. (Attributed to an unnamed member of a town council)
1886 Aug 14: POOR McSTAGGER DEID! Er’s VERA SAD TO THENK O’ THE GREAT NUMBER O’ DESTENGWESHED MEN THAT’S LATELY BEEN TA’EN! ’DEED—I NO FEEL VERA WEEL—MYSEL! (Ascribed to the character Kirk Elder)
1892 Feb 27: Homer is dead; Virgil is dead; Shakespeare is dead; and I am not very well. (Attributed by Clare Read to Mark Twain)
1893 May 6: NEARLY ALL OUR BEST MEN ARE DEAD! CARLYLE, TENNYSON, BROWNING, GEORGE ELIOT! — I’M NOT FEELING VERY WELL MYSELF! (Ascribed to the character Little Simpkins)
1894: Homer is dead, Shakespeare and Milton are no more, and I—I don’t feel very well myself. (Attributed by Alfred H. Miles to Mark Twain)
1898: Hawthorne’s dead, Longfellow is dead, Lowell is in wretched health, and I don’t feel very well myself. (Attributed by Chauncey Depew to James T. Fields)
1899 Jun 9: Chaucer is dead, Spencer is dead, so is Milton, so is Shakespeare, and I am not feeling very well myself. (Attributed to Mark Twain)
1900 Jul 1: All the great men are dead, and I don’t feel very well myself. (Attributed to Mark Twain)
1907 Jan 30: I regret particularly that great orators are no longer available. Demosthenes is dead, Cicero is dead, and I am not feeling very well myself. (William P. Clyde)
1922 Jan 24: The Pope is dead; and Viscount Bryce is dead, and I’m not feeling very darn good myself. (Attributed to Dan Worden)
1923 Mar 17: Ah me, those grand old times are sped, and all the saints but me are dead, and I am far from well. (Walt Mason)
1935: Julius Caesar is dead, Shakespeare is dead, Napoleon is dead, Abraham Lincoln is dead, and I am far from well myself. (Attributed by Cyril Clemens to Mark Twain in the period of 1866)
1963 Apr 17: Shakespeare is dead and gone. Milton has been gathered unto his fathers. Tennyson is no longer with us, and, ladies and gentlemen, I am not feeling very well myself. (Attributed to Mark Twain)
Below are details for selected citations in chronological order.
Depiction of a circuit with an AI chip from Unsplash
Question for Quote Investigator: A famous psychologist once contemplated the question of machine intelligence and presented a provocative counter question:
The real question is not whether machines think but whether men do.
This statement has been attributed to U.S. behaviorist B. F. Skinner. Would you please help me to find a citation?
Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1969 B. F. Skinner published “Contingencies of Reinforcement: A Theoretical Analysis” which included the following passage. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
It is only when machines seem to take over central processes that we grow uneasy. When they select stimuli, identify patterns, convert stimuli into forms more suitable for processing, categorize data, extract concepts, and follow problem-solving strategies, they perform functions which in man are attributed to Mind. …
But the real question is not whether machines think but whether men do. The mystery which surrounds a thinking machine already surrounds a thinking man.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
IBM Motto? Richard Hamming? Sia Armajani? Howard Dimmig? Anonymous?
Illustration of a robot hand from Pixabay
Question for Quote Investigator: Machines can perform work which humans do not wish to perform because it is repetitive and dangerous. Yet, as we enter the age of advanced AI there are many humans who desire to continue to perform creative and engaging tasks. Here are two versions of a pertinent motto:
(1) Machines should work. People should think. (2) Man should think. Machines should work.
Would you please explore the provenance of this saying?
Reply from Quote Investigator: The earliest match found by QI appeared in February 1968 within “The Oregon Statesman” of Salem, Oregon. A short piece titled “Work vs. Thinking” contained the saying. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
The slogan of IBM is “Machines should work. People should think.” Highly paid executives dream up such mottos. They are not released until they have run the gauntlet of marketing research and public opinion testing. So, perhaps we shouldn’t be so audacious as to imply criticism, but we think it doesn’t compute.
QI hypothesizes that the saying was created by IBM copywriters. The precise identity of the person who crafted the motto remains unknown.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
Painting titled “The Nightmare” by Henry Fuseli circa 1781
Question for Quote Investigator: The British actor and raconteur Peter Ustinov once wrote about an inevitable balance between dreams and nightmares. Would you please help me to find a citation?
Reply from Quote Investigator: In February 1989 Peter Ustinov published an article about Orson Welles in “The Independent” newspaper of London. Ustinov wrote about the dichotomous nature of the United States. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
The States are richer than other countries in many things. Because of their huge expanses with unending horizons and the relative absence of disillusionment in their history, they are richer in dreams as well. Unfortunately, the balance of nature decrees that a superabundance of dreams is paid for by a growing potential for nightmares.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
