Quote Investigator® – Page 4 – Tracing Quotations

Quote Origin: Trying To Be Consistently Not Stupid Instead of Trying To Be Very Intelligent

Charlie Munger? Warren Buffett? Andrew Kilpatrick? Apocryphal?

**Graph depicting increasing wealth over time from Unsplash**

Question for Quote Investigator: A famous investor once wrote about strategies for achieving wealth. The key was not concocting brilliant strategies; instead, the successful long-term investor triumphed by being “consistently not stupid”.

This notion has been attributed to U.S. businessman Charlie Munger. Would you please help me to find a citation?

Reply from Quote Investigator: Charlie Munger was the Chairman of the Board of the Wesco Financial Corporation, and the company’s annual reports often included letters from Munger. The 1989 annual report was released in 1990, and it contained a letter from Munger dated March 5, 1990. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:¹

Wesco continues to try more to profit from always remembering the obvious than from grasping the esoteric. It is remarkable how much long-term advantage people like us have gotten by trying to be consistently not stupid, instead of trying to be very intelligent. There must be some wisdom in the folk saying: “It’s the strong swimmers who drown”.

Our approach, while it has worked fairly well on average in the past and will probably work fairly well over the long-term future, is bound to encounter periods of dullness and disadvantage as it limits action.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: War Consists of Months of Intolerable Boredom Interspersed with Moments of Extreme Fear

Civis? Sapper? Scott Hurtt Paradise? H. O. A. Anne? Anonymous?

**Painting of “The Phantom Horseman” by Sir John Gilbert**

Question for Quote Investigator: Warfare is horrific, but feelings of terror occur intermittently. Battlefield veterans developed the following saying:

War consists of months of boredom punctuated by moments of sheer terror.

Would you please explore the provenance of this saying?

Reply from Quote Investigator: This description of war has been expressed in many ways. Here is an overview together with dates and attributions:

1909 Jun 28: Months of intolerable boredom interspersed with moments of agonising fear (Credited to Anonymous by Civis)

1909 Sep 28: Weeks of intolerable boredom, punctuated by moments of agonising fear (Credited to Anonymous by Civis)

1910 Aug 16: Months of monotonous fatigue, punctuated by moments of agonising fear (Credited to Anonymous by Civis)

1914 Nov 4: Months of boredom punctuated by moments of terror (Credited to Anonymous by a Cavalry Subaltern)

1914 Dec 9: A period of intense discomfort punctured by moments of abject terror (Credited to an unnamed British officer in South Africa by Lieut. H. O. A. Anne)

1914 Dec 18: Months of boredom, punctured by moments of terror (Credited to Anonymous by Scott Hurtt Paradise)

1914 Dec 19: Months of boredom punctuated by moments of extreme terror (Credited to Anonymous by Lieutenant Philip Smith)

1915 Apr 17: Hours of boredom, punctuated with moments of abject fear (Anonymous)

1916 Mar 18: Months of boredom punctuated by moments of intense fright (Credited to Anonymous by Sapper)

1940 Feb 15: Long periods of extreme boredom, punctuated by short and sharp periods of extreme danger (Lord Milne)

1962 Oct 14: Veteran pilots define flying as endless hours of boredom punctuated by moments of terror (Anonymous)

1970 Apr 16: Period of intense boredom punctuated by moments of acute fear (Attributed to a 17th Century soldier)

Below are details for selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: Fascism Is a Counter-Revolution Against a Revolution That Never Took Place

Ignazio Silone? Gwenda David? Eric Mosbacher? William Weaver? Anonymous?

**Illustration representing a revolutionary crowd from Pixabay**

Question for Quote Investigator: Thinkers have attempted to analyze and explain the rise of fascism in Germany and Italy. An Italian writer suggested that the failure of left-wing revolutionary movements catalyzed the emergence of fascism. Here is the pertinent quotation:

Fascism is a counter-revolution against a revolution that never took place.

This statement has been attributed to Ignazio Silone (pseudonym of Secondino Tranquilli). Would you please help me to find a citation?

Reply from Quote Investigator: Ignazio Silone left Italy and lived in exile during the 1930s. He wrote “La scuola dei dittatori” while residing in Switzerland. This work was translated into English by Gwenda David and Eric Mosbacher and published under the title “The School for Dictators” in 1938.¹ After a long delay a definitive Italian edition finally appeared in 1962.² Silone discussed the revolutionary tumult in Italy which led to the ascendance of fascism when Benito Mussolini gained power. Below is an excerpt in English and Italian with boldface added by QI:

Subsequent developments and complications must not cause us to overlook the essential fact that Fascism is a counter-revolution against a revolution that never took place.

Gli sviluppi e le complicazioni successive non devono però farci dimenticare questa verità iniziale: il fascismo è stata una controrivoluzione contro una rivoluzione che non ha avuto luogo.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: We Are on the Threshold of a Change in the Universe Comparable to the Transition from Non-Life to Life

Hans Moravec? Timothy Leary? Vince Rause? Grant Fjermedal? Apocryphal?

**Abstract illustration of a brain-like network from Unsplash**

Question for Quote Investigator: The creation of the first living beings on planet Earth was an epochal change. The prominent roboticist Hans Moravec has stated that the advent of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) will be a change comparable to the transition from non-life to life. Would you please help me to find a citation for this remark?

Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1984 “The First International Symposium on Robotics Research” was held at the Bretton Woods Hotel in New Hampshire. Hans Moravec delivered a paper titled “Locomotion, Vision, and Intelligence” which culminated with the following paragraph. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:¹

Machines as intelligent as humans will, in their generality, be capable of superhuman feats and will be able to do the science and engineering to build yet more powerful successors. I leave (almost certainly futile) speculation about the future evolution of this process for a future essay. It is clear to me we are on the threshold of a change in the universe comparable to the transition from nonlife to life.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: He Is the Only Genius with an IQ of 85

Gore Vidal? Andy Warhol? Peter Conrad? Apocryphal?

**Illustration depicting soup cans branded with Andy Warhol’s name**

Question for Quote Investigator: A U.S. intellectual once offered the following remarkably harsh assessment of a famous pop-artist:

He is the only genius with an IQ of 60.

Reportedly, the verbal sharpshooter was Gore Vidal, and the visual artist was Andy Warhol. The precise number specified for the IQ varied in different versions of this quip. I have never seen a solid citation. Would you please explore this topic?

Reply from Quote Investigator: The earliest match found by QI appeared in “The Transatlantic Review” of Salisbury, England in 1975. The team of Victor Bockris and Andrew Wylie interviewed Gore Vidal who delivered the provocative comment. Boldface has been added to excerpts by QI:¹

What do you think of the intelligence of Andy Warhol?

I have said of him, and it has been much quoted, that he is the only genius with an IQ of 85. And I don’t mean that in a necessarily pejorative way; the emphasis is more on the genius than the lowness of his IQ. He is sort of a cultural litmus paper. He was the first person to realise that modern art, the visual arts, was shit. And he proved it in a rather marvelous way; he just sent it all up, and he got away with it. Which makes it a double victory.

The phrasing used by Gore Vidal suggested that he had made this remark previously, but QI has not yet found any earlier matches. The citation above provided strong evidence because the quotation was spoken directly by Gore Vidal.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: Books Will Not Exist in About Five Years

Nicholas Negroponte? M. G. Siegler? William Deresiewicz? Apocryphal?

**Picture of a group of books from Unsplash**

Question for Quote Investigator: Predicting the technological future is extremely difficult. More than a decade ago Nicholas Negroponte, the head of the MIT Media Lab, predicted that books would not exist in about five years. He meant that the popularity of paper books would decline, and ebooks would predominate globally. Would you please help me to find a citation?

Reply from Quote Investigator: In August 2010 Nicholas Negroponte participated in a panel titled “What Technology Wants vs. What People Want” at the Techonomy conference. Negroponte made a provocative prediction about the future of books. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:¹

Can I give you an example of a technological inevitability that most people are appalled by, and that is that books will not exist in about five years.

Negroponte was not claiming that paper books would disappear. He believed that paper books would survive, but they would be eclipsed by digital books. He said:

As a luxury medium in the developed world, the same way we go to opera, and so on, physical books will survive, and they’ll have a long life.

Negroponte argued that numerous digital books could be stored on inexpensive laptop computers and shipped around the world. Thus, the economic efficiency of digital books was superior:

… when we ship one of these (laptops) into a village it has a hundred books in it. Then when we ship a hundred of them into a village what people don’t realize is that they each have a hundred different books. So that’s ten thousand books in that village. You and I didn’t have ten thousand books when we went to primary school.

Negroponte also presented an analogy between the paper format of books and the film format of photographs:

In the same way that film back in the late 80s was inevitably going to go away … we can predict that books will do the same …

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: No One Needs a Vacation So Much as the Person Who Has Just Had One

Elbert Hubbard? Mary Sargent Hopkins? Anonymous?

**La Merenda (The Snack) painted by Elin Danielson-Gambogi circa 1904**

Question for Quote Investigator: Vacations with full itineraries can be exciting and exhausting. Here are two versions of a pertinent quip:

(1) One never needs a vacation so much as the day after returning from one.
(2) The man who most needs a vacation is the man who has just had one.

This humorous remark has been attributed to U.S. writer and publisher Elbert Hubbard, but I have not seen a citation. Would you please explore this topic?

Reply from Quote Investigator: The earliest match found by QI appeared in 1899 within “The Boston Cooking-School Magazine”. The journalist Mary Sargent Hopkins published a piece titled “Out-of-Doors for the Home-Maker” which included an instance. Hopkins disclaimed credit for the remark and used the label “old saying”. Thus, the originator was anonymous. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:¹

Too often vacation means an annual trip somewhere, but rest is found nowhere. The last remnants of strength have been used in the preparation, and the whole endeavor absorbs more vitality than can be regained by the change.

There is an old saying that one never needs a vacation so much as the day after returning from one.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: A Bore Is a Person Who Deprives You of Solitude Without Providing You with Company

Oscar Wilde? Gian Vincenzo Gravina? John D. MacDonald? Roger Ebert? Paul Gibson? Marcel Proust? Anonymous?

**Painting titled “Solitude” by Frederic Leighton circa 1890**

Question for Quote Investigator: A clever person constructed the following definition:

A bore is a person who deprives you of solitude without providing you with company.

This remark has been attributed to Irish wit Oscar Wilde, Italian man of letters Gian Vincenzo Gravina, U.S. thriller writer John D. MacDonald, and movie critic Roger Ebert. I have never seen a solid citation. Would you please explore this topic?

Reply from Quote Investigator: The earliest match found by QI appeared in the periodical “Reader’s Digest” in March 1949 within a section of miscellaneous sayings called “Quotable Quotes”. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:¹

Gian Vincenzo Gravina, contemporary Italian author: A bore is a man who deprives you of solitude without providing you with company.

The entries printed on the “Quotable Quotes” page were sent to “Reader’s Digest” by readers who were compensated. The quotations were not verified by the magazine; hence, misquotations sometimes appeared.

Gian (Giovanni) Vincenzo Gravina was the name of a prominent Italian jurist and author who died in 1718. Thus, the claim that Gravina was a “contemporary Italian author” was odd. Perhaps, Giovanni Vincenzo Gravina was a pseudonym used by a contemporary author.

Oscar Wilde died in 1900. He implausibly received credit in 2008. John D. MacDonald used the expression in a 1974 novel, but he credited Gravina. Roger Ebert used the saying in 1976, but he credited John D. MacDonald.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: Love Is the Crowning Grace of Humanity, the Holiest Right of the Soul, the Golden Link Which Binds Us to Duty and Truth

Francis Petrarch? Plutarch? Henry Theodore Tuckerman? Frederick Saunders? Apocryphal?

**Painting “The Fountain of Love” by François Boucher circa 1748**

Question for Quote Investigator: The following ornate passage about love has been attributed to Francis Petrarch, a prominent poet of the Italian Renaissance:

Love is the crowning grace of humanity, the holiest right of the soul, the golden link which binds us to duty and truth.

I am skeptical because I have never seen a solid citation. Would you please explore the provenance of these words?

Reply from Quote Investigator: The earliest match found by QI appeared in 1845 within “The American Review: A Whig Journal of Politics, Literature, Art, and Science”. Essayist Henry Theodore Tuckerman published a piece about the sonnets composed by Francis Petrarch. In the following passage, Tuckerman was not presenting a direct quotation from Petrarch; instead, Tuckerman was delivering his own summary opinion:¹

Love, Petrarch maintains, is the crowning grace of humanity, the holiest right of the soul, the golden link which binds us to duty and truth, the redeeming principle that chiefly reconciles the heart to life, and is prophetic of eternal good. It is a blessing or a bane, a weakness or a strength, a fearful or a glorious experience, according to the soul in which it is engendered. Let us endeavor to define its action and vindicate its worth, as set forth in the Sonnets of Petrarch.

QI believes Henry Theodore Tuckerman deserves credit for the quotation under examination although Tuckerman was attempting to depict the thoughts of Petrarch.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: Being Powerful Is Like Being a Lady. If You Have To Tell People You Are, You Aren’t

Jesse Carr? Margaret Thatcher? Anonymous?

**The Political Lady (L’Ambitieuse) painted by James Tissot circa 1885**

Question for Quote Investigator: Positive self-descriptions are sometimes inaccurate. Here are three versions of a saying which illustrates this insight:

(1) Power is like being a lady—if you have to tell them you are, you ain’t.

(2) Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you ain’t.

(3) Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.

In this context, the term “lady” means a woman of refinement or superior social status. This remark has been attributed to U.S. labor union leader Jesse Carr and U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Would you please explore the provenance of this saying?

Reply from Quote Investigator: The earliest match found by QI appeared in the “Fairbanks Daily News-Miner” of Fairbanks, Alaska in October 1975. The words were attributed to Jesse Carr, but the quotation was indirect. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:¹

A friend of Jesse L. Carr says the Teamster leader has a saying that goes, “Power is like being a lady—if you have to tell them you are, you ain’t.”

The next earliest citation known to QI appeared in “Newsweek” magazine in September 1976. The statement was presented as a direct quotation from Carr at the beginning of an article about the labor leader:²

“Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you ain’t …
— Jesse Carr, head of Teamsters Union Local 959, Anchorage

Based on the citations listed above, QI believes that Jesse Carr deserves credit for this remark. The version in “Newsweek” is probably the most accurate. Margaret Thatcher received credit by 1984, but the saying was already in circulation. Also, QI has not found any citation displaying a direct quotation from Thatcher.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.