Neil deGrasse Tyson? Robert Benchley? Kenneth Boulding? Ross F. Papprill? Groucho Marx? Jeremy Bentham? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: I enjoy humor based on clever self-referential statements, and a great example is the following: There are two kinds of people in the world: Those who divide everybody into two kinds of people, and those who don’t. …
Search results for: going through hell
She Runs the Gamut of Human Emotion from A to B
Dorothy Parker? Katharine Hepburn? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: There is a famously severe criticism that was aimed at an inexpressive theater performer or movie star in the 1930s. Here are two prototypes: This performer ran the gamut of human emotion all the way from A to B. This thespian runs the gamut of emotions from …
Continue reading “She Runs the Gamut of Human Emotion from A to B”
Quote Origin This Is the Sort of Nonsense Up With Which I Will Not Put
Winston Churchill? Rudy Vallee? Army Captain? High School Teacher? The Strand Magazine? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: My question concerns a memorable anecdote about the statesman Winston Churchill and the fine points of grammar. In the past many books offering grammatical advice told readers that they must never end a sentence with a preposition. Years …
Continue reading “Quote Origin This Is the Sort of Nonsense Up With Which I Will Not Put”
Here are Two Tickets for the Opening of My Play. Bring a Friend—If You Have One
George Bernard Shaw? Winston Churchill? Randolph Churchill? Noel Coward? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: The sharpest example of repartee that I have ever heard about was a famous exchange between George Bernard Shaw and Winston Churchill about a pair of tickets to a play. Shaw: I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my …
Continue reading “Here are Two Tickets for the Opening of My Play. Bring a Friend—If You Have One”
Tennis, Anyone?
Humphrey Bogart? George Bernard Shaw? W. Somerset Maugham? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: Before Humphrey Bogart played iconic tough and sophisticated characters he appeared in drawing room comedies on Broadway. Supposedly in his first scene as a young actor he came striding onto the stage swinging a racquet and saying: Tennis anyone? Later this line became …
Quote Origin: Writing Is Easy; You Just Open a Vein and Bleed
Thomas Wolfe? Red Smith? Paul Gallico? Friedrich Nietzsche? Ernest Hemingway? Gene Fowler? Jeff MacNelly? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Whenever I have trouble writing I am reminded of a family of sayings which employ a gruesomely expressive metaphor to describe the difficult process of composition. Here are three instances: (1) Writing is easy. You just …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Writing Is Easy; You Just Open a Vein and Bleed”