Jean-Paul Sartre? George Carlin? Slavoj Žižek? O. O. McIntyre? Sewell Ford? Billy Wilder? Leo Rosten? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Philosophers, linguists, and humorists enjoy the following joke about tacit knowledge: A person enters a café and requests coffee without cream. After a delay the waiter returns and says “I’m sorry. We’re out of cream. …
Tag Archives: Jean-Paul Sartre
Quote Origin: In a Football Match, Everything Is Complicated by the Presence of the Opposite Team
Jean-Paul Sartre? Alan Sheridan-Smith? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The presence of an adversary makes planning more complex because the achievement of goals requires the anticipation of counter-measures. A famous philosopher once said something like the following: In football everything is complicated by the presence of the opposite team. The term “football” corresponds to “soccer” …
Every Word Has Consequences. Every Silence, Too
Jean-Paul Sartre? Apocryphal? Dear Quote Investigator: Did the famous existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre say the following: Every word has consequences. Every silence, too. I am trying to find a citation for the original French version. Would you please help? Quote Investigator: Jean-Paul Sartre believed that writers should be politically engaged. He was a founder of …
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The More Sand Has Escaped from the Hourglass of Our Life, the Clearer We Should See Through It
Niccolò Machiavelli? Jean-Paul Sartre? Jean Paul? Johann Paul Friedrich Richter? Dear Quote Investigator: A student would like to use the following quotation about perspicacity gained through experience in a yearbook, but she has been unable to determine an appropriate ascription: The more sand has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should …
“To Be Is To Do” “To Do Is To Be” “Do Be Do Be Do”
Kurt Vonnegut? Frank Sinatra? Jean-Paul Sartre? Dale Carnegie? Bud Crew? Socrates? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: The 1982 novel “Deadeye Dick” by the popular author Kurt Vonnegut mentioned the following piece of graffiti: “To be is to do”—Socrates. “To do is to be”—Jean-Paul Sartre. “Do be do be do”—Frank Sinatra. I think this tripartite list first …
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