If You Think Squash Is a Competitive Activity Try Flower Arrangement

Alan Bennett? Maggie Smith? Anonymous?

Question for Quote Investigator: Sports contests are often highly competitive, but one does not expect to find bitter rivalry and ambition in a genteel craft. Here are two versions of a statement that highlights this incongruity:

(1) If you think squash is a competitive activity try flower arrangement.

(2) If you think squash is a competitive activity try flower-arranging.

Would you please help me to find the origin of this humorous statement and the correct phrasing?

Reply from Quote Investigator: English playwright and screenwriter Alan Bennett authored a group of six monologues for BBC television in 1987. The works were published under the title “Talking Heads” by BBC Books in 1988. The prominent actress Maggie Smith played the role of Susan who was a vicar’s wife for the second monologue titled “Bed Among the Lentils”. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:[1] 1988, Talking Heads by Alan Bennett, Monologue Title: Bed Among the Lentils, Character Susan: Played by Maggie Smith, Quote Page 34, BBC Books, London. (Verified with scans)

I’m even a fool at the flower arrangement. I ought to have a PhD in the subject the number of classes I’ve been to but still my efforts show as much evidence of art as walking sticks in an umbrella stand. Actually it’s temperament. I don’t have it. If you think squash is a competitive activity try flower arrangement.

Additional information about this saying is available in the Quote Investigator article on the Medium website which is available here.

References

References
1 1988, Talking Heads by Alan Bennett, Monologue Title: Bed Among the Lentils, Character Susan: Played by Maggie Smith, Quote Page 34, BBC Books, London. (Verified with scans)

The Very Existence of Libraries Affords the Best Evidence That We May Yet Have Hope for the Future of Man

T. S. Eliot? Jayne Ann Krentz? Alan Bennett? Apocryphal? Anonymous?

Dear Quote Investigator: The Nobel laureate T. S. Eliot apparently stated that the establishment of libraries provided compelling evidence that humanity had a future. Would you please help me to find a citation?

Quote Investigator: The renowned poet T. S. Eliot died in 1965, and the earliest match known to QI appeared many years later in 1992 within the novel “Perfect Partners” by Jayne Ann Krentz who started her career as a librarian before she become a top-selling romance author. Emphasis added to excerpts by QI:[1] 1992, Perfect Partners by Jayne Ann Krentz, Chapter 7, Quote Page 123, Pocket Books: A Division of Simon & Schuster, New York. (Verified with scans)

Since the days of ancient Alexandria libraries had stood for all the best that mankind could achieve.

The very existence of libraries held out hope for the future of the human race, as far as Letty was concerned. If people had enough sense to collect and store information and make it available to everyone, perhaps they would someday have enough sense to use that wisdom to stop wars and find a cure for cancer.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Continue reading The Very Existence of Libraries Affords the Best Evidence That We May Yet Have Hope for the Future of Man

References

References
1 1992, Perfect Partners by Jayne Ann Krentz, Chapter 7, Quote Page 123, Pocket Books: A Division of Simon & Schuster, New York. (Verified with scans)