Tracing Quotations
Mark Twain? Oscar Wilde? Socrates? Nancy Weber? Judy Tillinger? Horace Porter? J. F. Carter? Gaius Petronius Arbiter? James Ogilvy? Thomas Paine? Voltaire? Richard A. Posner? Benjamin Franklin? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: The ancient Greek poet Hesiod stated: Observe due measure; moderation is best in all things. An extended version of this statement has been …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Be Moderate In Everything Including Moderation”
Oscar Wilde? Stuart Mason? Christopher Sclater Millard? Robert Ross? Elizabeth P. O’Connor? Arthur Ransome? Frank Harris? Sylvestre Dorian? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: According to legend, the famous wit Oscar Wilde delivered a comically audacious line when he first entered the United States during his lecture tour. A customs official in New York asked him …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: I Have Nothing To Declare Except My Genius”
Oscar Wilde? Seamus Heaney? Dorothy Parker? Israel Zangwill? Jen Kirkman? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The body and the soul separate at the time of death according to many religious systems. Hence, the idiom “keep body and soul together” refers to maintaining life, i.e., earning enough money to maintain health and activity. The famous Irish …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: I Drink To Keep Body and Soul Apart”
Dorothy Parker? Alexander Woollcott? Israel Zangwill? Oscar Wilde? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The body and the soul separate at the time of death according to many religious systems. Hence, the idiom “keep body and soul together” refers to maintaining life, i.e., earning enough money to maintain health and activity. A quipster once reversed this …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Salary Is No Object; I Want Only Enough To Keep Body and Soul Apart”
Niels Bohr? Hans Bohr? Werner Heisenberg? Oscar Wilde? Emilio Segrè? Carl Sagan? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: A famous scientist once asserted something like this: The opposite of a deep truth is another deep truth. Would you please help me to find a citation and the correct phrasing? Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1949 the …
Oscar Wilde? Niels Bohr? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Sometimes a narrow logical analysis is not enough to understand a topic. In the realm of art, the negation of a truth may yield another truth. The famous wit Oscar Wilde once made a claim of this type. Would you please help me to find a …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: A Truth in Art Is That Whose Contradictory Is Also True”
Oscar Wilde? Robert Ross? Frank Harris? Hesketh Pearson? Josiah Flynt? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: According to legend, Oscar Wilde was resting with his eyes closed on his deathbed when two physicians began discussing the necessity of a very expensive operation to extend his life. Wilde opened his eyes and said: I suppose that I …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: I Am Dying, As I Have Lived, Beyond My Means”
Oscar Wilde? Claire de Pratz? Léon Guillot de Saix? Lady Gregory? William Butler Yeats? Hesketh Pearson? Philippe Jullian? Violet Wyndham? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Near the end of Oscar Wilde’s life he was debt-ridden and ill. His shabby accommodations in Paris did not meet his aesthetic standards. According to legend he said something similar …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: This Wallpaper Is Killing Me; One of Us Must Go”
Arthur James Balfour? Batman? Oscar Wilde? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Apparently, the crime-fighting superhero Batman is a quotation expert. I recall watching a rerun episode of the 1960s television series during which Batman was asked to identify the creator of an obscure quotation about biography, and he immediately answered correctly with the name Arthur …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: A Person’s Biography Should Be Written by an Acute Enemy”
Oscar Wilde? Arthur Pendenys? Arthur James Balfour? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: An ill-intentioned biography is indistinguishable from a character assassination. The famous wit Oscar Wilde crafted a pertinent line on this topic. Here are three versions: Every great man nowadays has his disciples, and …it is usually Judas who writes the biography. …it is …