Tracing Quotations
Don Marquis? Christopher Morley? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Crafting a bright witticism or a clever aphorism is a difficult task especially for a writer who is facing a tight deadline. One strategy is described as follows: Stroke a platitude until it purrs like an epigram. This remark has been ascribed to Don Marquis who was …
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Don Marquis? Christopher Morley? Roscoe B. Ellard? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: People readily accept thoughtful opinions that are close to their own, but they become unhappy when sharply different viewpoints are expressed forcefully. Here is a germane remark: If you make people think they’re thinking, they’ll love you. If you really make them think they’ll …
Hannah Arendt? Christopher Morley? Kitty Foyle? Rosey Rittenhouse? Dear Quote Investigator: While looking through a compilation of quotations about horses I came across the following: Few girls are as well shaped as a good horse. Inexplicably, the words were ascribed to the political theorist Hannah Arendt who wrote about the Nazi Adolf Eichmann and popularized …
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