John Maynard Keynes? George Patton? Samuel Harries Daddow? Benjamin Bannan? Henry Smith? S. H. Monell? Thomas Brackett Reed? Thomas Alan Goldsborough? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: A brilliant figure of speech has been employed to describe the performance of a futile or counter-productive task. Here are two versions: (1) You cannot push on a string. (2) …