Tracing Quotations
Robert Frost? George William Curtis? Arthur Deerin Call? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Everyone encounters difficult problems and arduous tasks. When avoidance is impossible it becomes necessary to face these challenges directly. Here are four versions of a pertinent adage: (1) The only way out is through.(2) The best way out is always through.(3) No …
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Robert Frost? Lillian Russell? Fliegende Blätter? Evan Esar? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: An old-fashioned quip about vanity and aging states that a diplomat always remembers a person’s birthday but never remembers a person’s age. This joke has been attributed to the famous U.S. poet Robert Frost, but I have been unable to find a …
Robert Frost? Mark Twain? Margaret Pepperdene? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: Prominent U.S. poet Robert Frost has received credit for a brilliantly vivid metaphor describing two types of teachers. One type fills students with so much quail shot they cannot move. The other type simply prods students a little, and they jump to the skies. …
Robert Frost? Margaret Thatcher? Dwight D. Eisenhower? Aneurin Bevan? Franklin P. Jones? I. P. Reynolds? Eric Nicol? John M. Ashbrook? William Penn Patrick? Sydney Harris? Alan Craig Loughrige? Jim Hightower? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Social relationships and political decisions often entail compromise. Yet, these intermediary policies, i.e., middle-of-the-road positions, frequently engender hostility. Here is a …
Robert Frost? G. K. Chesterton? Eleanor Graham Vance? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The prominent poet Robert Frost did not compose free verse. Instead, he welcomed the structural demands of rhyme and meter. To explicate his choice he used a clever and vivid simile from the domain of tennis. Would you please help me to …
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Langston Hughes? Robert Frost? Zig Ziglar? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: A poem about the need to maintain aspirational dreams employed a vivid metaphor based on a bird with a damaged wing. The author was Langston Hughes or Robert Frost. Would you please help me to find a citation? Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1932 …
Robert Frost? Anita Brookner? Thucydides? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The famous poet Robert Frost enjoyed socializing with people who had strong personalities. He highlighted a connection between freedom and boldness. Would you please help me to find a citation? Reply from Quote Investigator: In December 1952 “The New Yorker” magazine published a piece by …
Robert Frost? David Frost? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: While listening to a TEDx talk I heard an interesting motivational quotation attributed to the popular American poet Robert Frost: Don’t aim for success if that’s what you want. Do what you love and believe in, and it will follow. I doubt that the versifier of …
Robert Frost? Edna St. Vincent Millay? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The acclaimed American poet Robert Frost was asked as an octogenarian what he had learned about life, and he succinctly replied: It goes on. I have been unable to find a contemporaneous citation, and a popular quotation website says that the attribution is disputed. …
George Bernard Shaw? George Melly? I. S. Johar? Ann Landers? Patrick Harte? Robert Frost? Winston Churchill? Oscar Wilde? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Here are two versions of an adage highlighting the sensual aspects of popular gyrations: George Bernard Shaw, Ann Landers, Oscar Wilde, and Robert Frost have received credit for this saying. What do …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: Dancing Is a Perpendicular Expression of a Horizontal Desire”