Quote Origin: Genius Is Hard Work, Stick-To-It-Iveness, and Common Sense

Thomas Edison? Julia Marlowe? Samuel Smiles? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: A famous entrepreneur once spoke about the ingredients needed for success. Here are two versions: (1) I tell you genius is hard work, stick-to-it-iveness, and common sense. (2) The three great essentials to achieve anything worthwhile are, first, hard work; second, stick-to-itiveness; third, common …

Quote Origin: What Can Be More Palpably Absurd Than the Prospect Held Out of Locomotives Traveling Twice as Fast as Stagecoaches?

The Quarterly Review? Samuel Shaen? Wyndham Harding? Samuel Smiles? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: While reading a humorous book containing a collection of terribly inaccurate predictions I encountered the following: What can be more palpably absurd than the prospect held out of locomotives traveling twice as fast as stagecoaches? The book asserted that this claim …

Quote Origin: The Person Who Never Makes a Mistake Will Never Make Anything

Theodore Roosevelt? Albert Einstein? Benjamin Franklin? Samuel Smiles? Josh Billings? Mr. Phelps? G. K. Chesterton? Robert Smith Surtees? Joseph Conrad? Will Rogers? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Mistakes are unavoidable in the life of an active and vital person. Several adages highlight this important theme: 1) A man who never makes a mistake will never …