Tracing Quotations
Gore Vidal? Wilfrid Sheed? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: There is a mordant expression that reflects the corrosive nature of jealousy. Here are four versions: 1) Whenever a friend succeeds, a little something in me dies. 2) Every time a friend succeeds I die a little. 3) When a friend succeeds, a small part of …
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Gore Vidal? La Rochefoucauld? W. Somerset Maugham? Wilfrid Sheed? Iris Murdoch? David Merrick? Genghis Khan? Larry Ellison? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Competition and jealousy are reflected in a family of closely related cynical sayings: I have heard different versions of these quotations credited to the epigrammatist La Rochefoucauld, the writer Gore Vidal, and the …
Continue reading “Quote Origin: It Is Not Enough to Succeed; One’s Best Friend Must Fail”