Johann Wolfgang von Goethe? Carl Sandburg? Ruth Strang? Johann Peter Eckermann? John Oxenford? Henry R. Tedder? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: When the famous German intellectual Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was an octogenarian he spoke to a friend about the effort required to read a text carefully and deeply. He said something like the following: …
Tag Archives: Carl Sandburg
Quote Origin: Time Is the Coin of Your Life. It Is the Only Coin You Have
Carl Sandburg? Ralph McGill? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: It is too easy to waste time on frivolous, foolish, or self-destructive pursuits. Apparently, a prominent literary figure once equated time to a valuable coin which each person must spend wisely. Would you please help me find the correct phrasing and a citation? Reply from Quote …
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Quote Origin: One Half of What I Have Told You May Be Proved Untrue. Unfortunately, I Cannot Tell You Which Half
Charles Sidney Burwell? Charles F. Kettering? Helen Clapesattle? Carl Sandburg? Camille Pierre Dadant? Josh Billings? William Osler? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator Educators and researchers know that knowledge in fields like science and medicine is continuously growing and changing. Thus, today’s verities become tomorrow’s fallacies. A lecturer once candidly admitted these weaknesses by saying something …
Quote Origin: The One-Eyed Mollusc On the Sea-Bottom Is My Equal in What He and I Know of Star Clusters Not Yet Found
Carl Sandburg? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Humanity takes arrogant pride in the knowledge it has accumulated over the centuries. Yet, it is a paltry amount when compared to the vast treasure troves that remain undiscovered in the uncharted regions of space and time. I roughly recall a saying on this theme that emphasized humility: …
Quote Origin: What Can Be Explained Is Not Poetry
William Butler Yeats? John Butler Yeats? Carl Sandburg? Ezra Pound? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A reader who requests clarification for a poem that is opaque is sometimes met with a rejoinder of this type: If the lines can be explained then the work is not poetry. This notion has been attributed to the Nobel …
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Quote Origin: If They Turn Their Backs To the Fire, and Get Scorched in the Rear, They’ll Find They Have Got To ‘Sit’ on the ‘Blister’!
Abraham Lincoln? Francis Bicknell Carpenter? Carl Sandburg? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Apparently Abraham Lincoln employed a vividly powerful metaphor when discussing the people’s responsibility during an election. The precise phrasing is uncertain. Here is one version: If the people turn their backs to a fire they will burn their behinds, and they will just …
Quote Origin: Legal Advice: Pound the Facts, Pound the Law, Pound the Table
Carl Sandburg? Alan Dershowitz? Jerome Michael? Jacob J. Rosenblum? Oliver Wendell Holmes? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: A few years ago I saw a famous quotation about legal strategy attributed to a celebrity professor: Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz shares with his students a strategy for successfully defending cases. If the facts are on …
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