George Bernard Shaw? Ritchie Calder? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Prominent Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw is a misquotation magnet. Numerous remarks have been ascribed to him that he never said. Apparently, he once grumbled about being “misquoted everywhere”. He believed that the inaccuracies were chasing him around the world. Would you please help me …
Tag Archives: George Bernard Shaw
Quote Origin: Being Irish, He Had an Abiding Sense of Tragedy Which Sustained Him Through Temporary Periods of Joy
William Butler Yeats? John Millington Synge? Oliver Stone? George Bernard Shaw? Mary Higgins Clark? Martha Manning? Paul Greenberg? James Finn Garner? Apocryphal? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: The painful history of the island of Ireland has produced numerous inhabitants with a melancholy disposition. This notion is reflected in the following humorously inverted saying: Being Irish, …
I Always Advise People Never To Give Advice
P. G. Wodehouse? George Bernard Shaw? Smallwood Bessemer? Bob Chieger? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: A famous wit once offered the following piece of self-contradictory advice: Never take advice. Another prominent humorist offered a similar piece of oxymoronic guidance: Never give advice. Would you please help me to find these citations together with the correct …
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“Lots of People Talk To Animals” “Not Very Many Listen, Though”
A. A. Milne? Piglet? Owl? Pooh? Benjamin Hoff? George Bernard Shaw? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The following dialog has been ascribed to the famous English author A. A. Milne: Pooh: Lots of people talk to animals. Owl: Maybe, but . . . Not very many listen, though. Pooh: That’s the problem. I am skeptical …
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Flowers: Don’t Cut Off Their Heads and Stick Them in Pots
George Bernard Shaw? Blanche Patch? Archibald Henderson? Bennett Cerf? Walter Winchell? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A visitor to the home of a famous wit expected to find vases filled with beautiful cut flowers, but there were none. The wit explained the absence by making a comically grotesque comparison between cut flowers and decapitated people. …
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“Lady X Will Be At Home Thursday Between 4 and 6” “Mr. Bernard Shaw Likewise”
George Bernard Shaw? Walter Winchell? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A person who was enamored with celebrities wanted George Bernard Shaw to attend a social gathering. Several attempts at interesting Shaw failed. So a formal invitation was sent. Shaw appended a short reply and sent the note back: “Lord X will be at home on …
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Science Can Never Solve One Problem Without Raising Ten More Problems
George Bernard Shaw? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: Scientific knowledge is incomplete and tentative. Superior scientific theories regularly supersede existing theories. The knowledge provided is flawed, but the process is self-correcting and self-improving. Irish playwright and activist George Bernard Shaw bluntly stated that science was always wrong. He believed that every time science solved a problem …
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Life Is Not About Finding Yourself. Life Is About Creating Yourself
George Bernard Shaw? Mary McCarthy? Thomas Szasz? Sydney J. Harris? Helen A. De Rosis? Victoria Y. Pellegrino? Karen Horney? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: For decades pop-psychology has emphasized the task of “finding yourself”, i.e., identifying your deepest values, abilities, feelings, and desires. Yet, these qualities are not immutable. Instead, living fully means endlessly recreating yourself. …
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It Is the Soul’s Duty To Be Loyal To Its Own Desires
Rebecca West? George Bernard Shaw? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: The prominent British author and literary critic Rebecca West once wrote about the necessity to be loyal to one’s own desires. Would you please help me to find a citation? Quote Investigator: In 1913 Rebecca West published in the journal “The New Freewoman” a review of …
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A Happy Family Is But an Earlier Heaven
George Bernard Shaw? John Bowring? John Browning? John Bouring? Dear Quote Investigator: Some envision heaven filled with a joyous, loving, and interconnected group of people united on a higher spiritual plane. If one is a member of a happy family here on Earth then it is possible to obtain a glimpse of this future possibility. …