Tracing Quotations
Mark Twain? Frank Marshall White? Albert Bigelow Paine? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A famous anecdote about the humorist Mark Twain occurred when he was an elderly gentleman. A prominent newspaper reported that Twain was either gravely ill or dead. Journalists rushed to learn more about the story, and they found that Twain was still …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Reports of My Death Are Greatly Exaggerated”
Mark Twain? Albert Bigelow Paine? Caroline Thomas Harnsberger? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A famous author once suggested that humankind was not generating any genuinely new ideas. The author illustrated this viewpoint via a clever simile. Ideas were like pieces of colored glass in a kaleidoscope. The ideas which appeared to be new were only configurations …
Mark Twain? Albert Bigelow Paine? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: Mark Twain formulated a wonderful expression about the fallibility of memory as one grows older. Here is the beginning of his humorous saying: When I was younger, I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not. My own memory may be failing because I think …
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Mark Twain? Albert Bigelow Paine? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: While watching a television show recently I heard the following saying credited to Mark Twain: The best way to cheer yourself up is to cheer somebody else up. The writers of television series sometimes sacrifice accuracy to enable more colorful story-telling. Is this quotation really from …
Continue reading “The Best Way to Cheer Yourself Is to Try to Cheer Somebody Else Up”