Tracing Quotations
John Wayne? Redd Foxx? Robert Mitchum? George V. Higgins? Steven Keats? Eddie Coyle? Jackie Brown? Dear Quote Investigator: When someone performs a witless or laughably irritating act there is a barbed response that reflects exasperation. Here are three versions: Life is hard. It’s harder when you’re stupid. Life’s hard. It’s harder if you’re stupid. Life …
Continue reading “This Life’s Hard, But It’s Harder If You’re Stupid”
Oscar Wilde? Margaret Butler? Geraldine Grove? Lord Chesterfield? John Wayne? Christopher Hitchens? John Cleese? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Books of etiquette once provided a definition of a gentleman that included the following assertion: A gentleman never insults anyone intentionally. The clever addition of a two-letter prefix humorously spun the definition: A gentleman never insults anyone …
Continue reading “A Gentleman Is a Man Who Never Gives Offense Unintentionally”