Tracing Quotations
John Maclean? James Hudson? James Riley? H. L. Mencken? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Warring countries enlist workers to fight battles. Pacifists have adopted the following slogan. Here are three versions: (1) A bayonet is a weapon with a working man at either end.(2) A bayonet is a weapon with a worker at each end.(3) …
Continue reading “Proverb Origin: A Bayonet Is a Weapon with a Worker at Each End”
John Stuart Mill? Henry George? H. L. Mencken? C. Palfrey? J. E. Jennings? Adam Coaldigger? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Recent progress in artificial intelligence and robotics has led some to believe that work hours will shrink and leisure will grow. However, history suggests a different possibility. Brilliant inventors have created a series of remarkable …
Continue reading “Saying Origin: Labor-Saving Devices Don’t Save Labor. They Increase It”
Jean Paul? Johann Paul Friedrich Richter? Charles T. Brooks? H. L. Mencken? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The experience of a birthday inspires philosophical reveries in some older people. Apparently, a literary figure once wrote: Birthdays are feathers in the broad wing of time. This statement has been credited to the German Romantic writer Johann …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Birthdays Are Feathers in the Broad Wing of Time”