Tracing Quotations
Steven Tyler? Keble Howard? George E. Waring Jr.? Henry Stanley Haskins? Robert Heinlein? Lord Chesterfield? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: The following adage celebrates enthusiasm and exuberance: Anything worth doing is worth overdoing. This saying has been attributed to the rock star Steven Tyler and science fiction author Robert Heinlein. Would you please help me …
Continue reading “Adage Origin: Whatever Is Worth Doing Is Worth Overdoing”
Miguel de Cervantes? Don Quixote? Sancho Panza? Euripides? Lord Chesterfield? Johann Wolfgang von Goethe? Joseph Hordern? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: If you are attempting to assess the character of an individual you can do it indirectly by identifying his or her friends and assessing their proclivities. Here are three versions of a pertinent saying: Show …
Continue reading “Tell Me What Company You Keep, and I Will Tell You What You Are”
Lord Chesterfield? Hilaire Belloc? D. H. Lawrence? George Bernard Shaw? Alexander Duffield? W. Somerset Maugham? Elliot Paul? Samuel Hopkins Adams? Benjamin Franklin? P. D. James? Apocryphal? Anonymous? Dear Quote Investigator: Lord Chesterfield reportedly crafted an outrageously humorous description of intimate relations. I’ve seen different versions that each comment on pleasure, position, and expense. Yet, I …
Continue reading “The Pleasure Is Momentary, the Position Is Ridiculous, the Expense Is Damnable”
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”
J. K. Rowling? Lord Chesterfield? Sirius Black? Charles Bayard Miliken? M. C. B. Mason? Dear Quote Investigator: My favorite quotation from the entire Harry Potter series was the brilliantly insightful remark spoken by the character Sirius Black: If you want to know what a man’s like, take a good look at how he treats his …
Continue reading “If You Want to Know What a Man’s Like, Look at How He Treats His Inferiors”