Quote Investigator® – Page 47

Quote Origin: Important Things in the World Have Been Accomplished by People Who Have Kept On Trying When There Seemed To Be No Hope At All

Dale Carnegie? Lee de Forest? Dorothy Carnegie? Apocryphal?

Question for Quote Investigator: Dale Carnegie was a popular author of self-improvement books. He once argued against premature discouragement by asserting that most remarkable achievements had been attained by people who continued to try even when no hope seemed possible. Would you please help me to find a citation?

Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1942 Dale Carnegie published a newspaper column about U.S. inventor Lee de Forest who faced numerous technological, financial, and legal obstacles in his career. He eventually obtained success with the creation of the Audion vacuum tube. Lee de Forest’s tale illustrated Carnegie’s point that one should not be easily deterred. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:¹

Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all. That plan has worked for thousands of others; it may work for you, too.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: A Hero Is an Ordinary Individual Who Finds the Strength To Persevere and Endure in Spite of Overwhelming Obstacles

Christopher Reeve? Apocryphal?

Question for Quote Investigator: Actor Christopher Reeve achieved enormous fame when he played the title character in the 1978 movie “Superman”. He suffered a tragic accident during an equestrian competition in 1995 which injured his spine and paralyzed part of his body. His life experiences caused him to change his perception of heroism. Would you please help me to find a citation for his definition of a hero?

Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1998 Christopher Reeve published the autobiography “Still Me”, and he described the definition of a hero that he gave to interviewers during the publicity campaign for the “Superman” movie in 1978. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:¹

The most frequently asked question was: “What is a hero?” I remember how easily I’d talk about it, the glib response I repeated so many times. My answer was that a hero is someone who commits a courageous action without considering the consequences.

Reeve’s notion of a hero was transformed as he gained greater insights to life:

Now my definition is completely different. I think a hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles.

Below is one additional citation and a conclusion.

Quote Origin: Censors Tend To Do What Only Psychotics Do; They Confuse Reality With Illusion

David Cronenberg? Apocryphal?

Question for Quote Investigator: The prominent Canadian director David Cronenberg is best known for filming graphic horror movies. He vehemently disagrees with any restrictions on the material he depicts in his works. Apparently, he once compared a censor to a psychotic because he believed both confused illusion and reality. Would you please help me to find a citation?

Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1987 U.K. Channel 4 broadcast the documentary “Long Live the New Flesh: The Films of David Cronenberg” which included footage from an extended interview with the director.¹

Cronenberg delivered his harsh assessment of censors within a section of the documentary about the cuts made to his films. His forceful remark was attenuated by three clumsy phrases “I think that”, “in fact”, and “which is to say”:²

I think that censors tend to do what in fact only psychotics do which is to say that they confuse reality with illusion.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: The Best Time To Plant a Tree Was 30 Years Ago, and the Second Best Time To Plant a Tree Is Now

George W. White? Confucius? Chinese Saying? Jean Chretien? Earl Ubell? Anonymous?

Question for Quote Investigator: The payoff for some actions only occurs after a lengthy delay. For example, a newly planted fruit tree requires years of growth before it can generate a bumper harvest. Also, a shade tree may require decades of maturation before it produces an extensive canopy. Yet, regrets about previous missed opportunities should not prevent immediate constructive action. Here are two versions of a popular saying:

The best time to plant a tree is twenty years ago. The second best time is now.

The two best times to plant are tree are 30 years ago and today.

This is sometimes called a Chinese proverb, but I have not seen any solid supporting evidence. Would you please explore the provenance of this saying?

Reply from Quote Investigator: The earliest strong match known to QI appeared in “The Cleveland Plain Dealer” of Ohio in 1967. Local city councilman George W. White used the expression, but he disclaimed credit. Thus, the source was anonymous. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:¹

“Someone remarked,” White said, “that the best time to plant a tree was 30 years ago, and the second best time to plant a tree is now. That’s how it is with us.”

Thanks to linguistics researcher Barry Popik who located the above citation.

QI has found no substantive evidence that this saying is a Chinese proverb.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: During Christmas People Will Forget the Past With a Present

Gladys Parker? Don Marquis? Walter Winchell? Uncle Ezra? Phyllis Diller? Anonymous?

Question for Quote Investigator: A collection of Christmas season quips employ wordplay based on “past” and “present”. Here are two examples:

What I like about Christmas is that you can make people forget the past with a present.

At Christmas time youngsters want the past forgotten and the present remembered.

Remarks of this type have been attributed to humorist Don Marquis, cartoonist Gladys Parker, and comedian Phyllis Diller. Would you please explore this topic?

Reply from Quote Investigator: This family of jokes is difficult to trace because the phrasing is variable. In January 1933 a one-panel cartoon called “Flapper Fanny Says” by Gladys Parker depicted a woman opening a present. The caption said the following. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:¹

Nothing smoothes out the past like a present.

This instance of the quip did not mention Christmas, but it contained the key wordplay elements.

In February 1933 the “Brooklyn Daily Eagle” of New York printed an instance about birthdays with an anonymous attribution:²

… the latest bit of wisdom scribbled on the bulletin board at Connie’s Inn reads, “On her birthday every girl wants her past forgotten and her presents remembered”

In July 1934 Gladys Parker revisited this notion in her one-panel cartoon “Flapper Fanny Says”. Parker’s illustration depicted a woman tending the flowers on a trellis, and the caption said:³

Many a person will forget the past for a present.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: Science Can Never Solve One Problem Without Raising Ten More Problems

George Bernard Shaw? Apocryphal?

Question for Quote Investigator: Scientific knowledge is incomplete and tentative. Superior scientific theories regularly supersede existing theories. The knowledge provided is flawed, but the process is self-correcting and self-improving.

Irish playwright and activist George Bernard Shaw bluntly stated that science was always wrong. He believed that every time science solved a problem it introduced ten more problems. Would you please help me to find a citation?

Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1930 George Bernard Shaw delivered a speech in London honoring physicist Albert Einstein. The address was broadcast in the U.S., and a transcript appeared in “The New York Times”. Shaw presented a contrast between the certainties provided by religion and science. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:¹

Religion is always right. Religion protects us against that great problem which we all must face. Science is always wrong; it is the very artifice of men. Science can never solve one problem without raising ten more problems.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: You’re Never Too Old To Become Younger

Mae West? George Christy? Barbara Rowes? Apocryphal?

Question for Quote Investigator: A prominent movie star delivered a paradoxical line about aging:

You are never too old to become younger.

Would you please help to find a citation?

Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1969 Hollywood columnist George Christy interviewed the famous actress Mae West in the pages of “The Los Angeles Times”. She spoke about her youthful philosophy. The ellipsis appeared in the original text. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:¹

I’ve taken good care of myself all my life . . . you’re never too old to become younger. That’s my philosophy. You can do it by eating and living properly. And if you need a lift, why not?

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: It Isn’t Enough To Write So You Will Be Understood. You Have To Write So You Can’t Be Misunderstood

Quintilian? William Cobbett? John Cooke? Charles Haddon Spurgeon? W. E. Smith? Walter Winchell? Rollin D. Salisbury? William H. Taft?

Question for Quote Investigator: A maxim about the goal of communication expresses an ideal that is desirable but nearly impossible to achieve. Here are three versions:

(1) You must not only speak so that people can understand you, but so that they cannot misunderstand you.

(2) Teach not only so that the children can understand you, but so that they cannot misunderstand you.

(3) You must write not so that you can be understood but so that you cannot possibly be misunderstood.

Would you please explore the provenance of this family of sayings?

Reply from Quote Investigator: The Roman educator Quintilian (Marcus Fabius Quintilianus) published a multi-volume work about rhetoric titled “Institutio Oratoria” (“Institutes of Oratory”) around the year 95 CE. Quintilian discussed strategies of persuasion. Here is a passage from book 8 chapter 2 translated into English by scholar Harold Edgeworth Butler. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:¹

For we must never forget that the attention of the judge is not always so keen that he will dispel obscurities without assistance, and bring the light of his intelligence to bear on the dark places of our speech. On the contrary, he will have many other thoughts to distract him unless what we say is so clear that our words will thrust themselves into his mind even when he is not giving us his attention, just as the sunlight forces itself upon the eyes.

Therefore our aim must be not to put him in a position to understand our argument, but to force him to understand it. Consequently we shall frequently repeat anything which we think the judge has failed to take in as he should.

Below is the key phrase in its original Latin form:²

Quare non, ut intelligere possit, sed, ne omnino possit non intelligere, curandum.

QI believes that Quintilian’s statement was the seed which produced the efflorescence of sayings under examination. For example, in 1807 James Beattie who was a Professor of Moral Philosophy and Logic at Marischal College in Scotland published “Elements of Moral Science”. Beattie cited Quintilian when he presented his own version of the saying:³

We should study, says Quintilian, not only to be understood in what we speak or write, but to make it impossible for the attentive to misunderstand us.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence

Carl Sagan? Marcello Truzzi? Pierre-Simon Laplace? David Hume? Benjamin Bayly? Elihu Palmer? William Craig Brownlee? F. B. Barton? William Denton? Ely Vaughan Zollars? Joseph Rinn? James Oberg? Arthur C. Clarke?

Question for Quote Investigator: Tabloid newspapers have printed remarkable claims about alien abductions, mischievous ghosts, bigfoot sightings, and other anomalies. Skeptics have countered these reports by stating that the evidence is inadequate. Here are two versions of a pertinent adage:

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.

This saying has been attributed to astronomer Carl Sagan, sociologist Marcello Truzzi, and mathematician Pierre-Simon Laplace. Would you please explore this topic?

Reply from Quote Investigator: These sayings form a natural family although the vocabulary and phrasing varies. The following overview with dates shows the evolution:

1708: These matters being very extraordinary, will require a very extraordinary proof (Benjamin Bayly)

1738: As it is a matter of an extraordinary kind, it is but reasonable in us to require extraordinary evidence for it

1740: Every man has a right to demand extraordinary evidence for any extraordinary fact (Arthur Ashley Sykes)

1741: Assertions so contrary to fact … require some extraordinary proof to gain our credit and assent (John Straight)

1748: A wise man, therefore, proportions his belief to the evidence (David Hume)

1748: No testimony is sufficient to establish a miracle, unless the testimony be of such a kind, that its falsehood would be more miraculous, than the fact, which it endeavours to establish (David Hume)

1800: Miracles being very unusual and extraordinary facts, they require very strong evidence to support them (Beilby Porteus)

1804: I ought to have extraordinary evidence, to induce me to believe extraordinary things (Elihu Palmer)

1810: Plus un fait est extraordinaire, plus il a besoin d’être appuyé de fortes preuves (Pierre-Simon Laplace)

1810: The more extraordinary a fact, the more it needs to be supported by strong proofs (Translation of Pierre-Simon Laplace)

1824: Extraordinary claims can rest only on extraordinary proofs (William Craig Brownlee)

1826: For extraordinary facts, we should have extraordinary evidence

1852: Extraordinary claims should be backed by extraordinary proof

1854: An extraordinary, an unnatural event, demands extraordinary evidence (F. B. Barton)

1871: Extraordinary evidence is needed to establish extraordinary facts (William Denton)

1895: Extraordinary claims always call for extraordinary proof (Ely Vaughn Zollars)

1906: Wonderful phenomena need wonderful evidence in their support (Joseph F. Rinn)

1975: Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof (Marcello Truzzi)

1976: Extraordinary proof is necessary for extraordinary claims (Kendrick Frazier credited Marcello Truzzi)

1977: Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence (Carl Sagan)

1979: Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary proof. (James Oberg)

Below are selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: There Is One Thing In This World That Money Can’t Buy, The Wag Of a Dog’s Tail

Josh Billings? Henry Wheeler Shaw? Apocryphal?

Question for Quote Investigator: A dog wagging its tail energetically produces joy in my heart. The dog is usually expressing genuine enthusiasm. A well-known writer once said that money could not buy a wagging tail. Would you please help me to identify the writer and find a citation?

Reply from Quote Investigator: In the 1870s popular humorist Josh Billings (pseudonym of Henry Wheeler Shaw) published an annual series called “Farmer’s Allminax” which parodied the long-lived periodical “Farmers’ Almanac”. In 1879 Billings published a collection under the tile “Old Probability: Perhaps Rain—Perhaps Not”. He included an illustration (shown above) of an unhappy and uncooperative dog resisting the tug of a leash in front of a store called “J. Barkis & Co.” for dog fanciers. The script caption employed intentional misspellings. Here is a transcription followed by a version using standard spelling. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:¹

I thank the Lord that thare iz one thing in this world that money kant buy, and that iz,— the wag ov a dogs tail.
Yure Unkle, Josh Billings

I thank the Lord that there is one thing in this world that money can’t buy, and that is,— the wag of a dog’s tail.
Your Uncle, Josh Billings

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.