Tracing Quotations
Anais Nin? Rosalie Maggio? Katherine Young? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A deep emotional rapport with another person allows one to live vicariously. A famous diarist apparently said the following: Through love, through friendship, a heart lives more than one life. This statement has been ascribed to French-born U.S. author Anaïs Nin. Would you please …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Through Love, Through Friendship, a Heart Lives More Than One Life”
Anaïs Nin? Orville Clark? Barbara Rowes? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The prominent literary figure and acclaimed modern diarist Anaïs Nin stated something like the following: When we become familiar with people and scenes we cease to see them; therefore, the true artist must shake up the commonplace. The resultant novelty will enable a renewal …
Paul Valéry? W. H. Auden? Anaïs Nin? Maya Deren? Jean Cocteau? Esther Kellner? Gene Fowler? Gore Vidal? Marianne Moore? George Lucas? Oscar Wilde? Question for Quote Investigator: A creative person who is absorbed with the task of generating an artwork hesitates to declare completion. Reworking and improving a piece is always a tantalizing possibility. Here …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: A Work of Art Is Never Finished, Merely Abandoned”
Henri Bergson? Robertson Davies? Johann Wolfgang von Goethe? Thomas Carlyle? Anais Nin? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: One might see a duck when looking at the famous ambiguous image above, or one might see a rabbit. Perceiving one animal partially blocks the recognition of the other animal, and mental effort is required to switch one’s …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: The Eye Sees Only What the Mind Is Prepared To Comprehend”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe? Anais Nin? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: During a Rorschach test a patient is shown a series of ambiguous inkblots and his or her reactions and interpretations are recorded. This assessment reminds me of an adage. Here are two versions: Would you please explore this saying? Reply from Quote Investigator: There …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: One Sees What One Carries In One’s Own Heart”
J. K. Rowling? Anaïs Nin? Plutarch? Otto Rank? Question for Quote Investigator: J. K. Rowling created the beloved fantasy universe of Harry Potter and the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. She delivered a humorous and touching commencement address at Harvard University in 2008. While in college she studied the classics, and her address included …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Whatever We Achieve Inwardly Will Change Outer Reality”
Anaïs Nin? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The acclaimed modern diarist Anaïs Nin apparently experienced an addictive intensity when writing in her diary. The following words have been attributed to her: This diary is my kief, hashish, and opium pipe. Is this an authentic quotation, or is it simply a hallucination? Reply from Quote Investigator: …
Anaïs Nin? Babylonian Talmud? Immanuel Kant? G. T. W. Patrick? H. M. Tomlinson? Steven Covey? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Our preconceptions can dramatically alter the way we perceive the world. There is a saying attributed to the prominent writer Anaïs Nin that reflects this idea: We don’t see things as they are; we see …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: We Don’t See Things As They Are, We See Them As We Are”