George Bernard Shaw? Winston Churchill? Randolph Churchill? Noel Coward? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The sharpest example of repartee that I have ever heard about was a famous exchange between George Bernard Shaw and Winston Churchill about a pair of tickets to a play. Shaw: I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of …
Tag Archives: Winston Churchill
Quote Origin: Now We’re Just Haggling Over the Price
George Bernard Shaw? Winston Churchill? Groucho Marx? Max Aitken? Mark Twain? W. C. Fields? Bertrand Russell? Question for Quote Investigator: There is a famous story about sex and money that I have heard in myriad variations. A man asks a woman if she would be willing to sleep with him if he pays her an …
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Quote Origin: None of This Nonsense about Women and Children First
Noël Coward? Winston Churchill? W. Somerset Maugham? Joe Drum? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: After major news events people often start exchanging jokes related to the subject matter. The recent tragic cruise ship accident has caused two versions of a comical anecdote to enter circulation. The punch line has been attributed to the statesman Winston …
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Quote Origin: America Is the Only Country That Went from Barbarism to Decadence Without Civilization In Between
Ogden Nash? George Bernard Shaw? James Agate? La Liberté? Winston Churchill? Henry James? Oscar Wilde? Georges Clemenceau? Question for Quote Investigator: There is a famous humorous saying about the United States that has been credited to four celebrated wits: George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, Winston Churchill, and Georges Clemenceau: America is the only country that …
Quote Origin: People Sleep Peacefully in Their Beds at Night Only Because Rough Men Stand Ready to Do Violence on Their Behalf
George Orwell? Richard Grenier? Rudyard Kipling? Winston Churchill? John Le Carré? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: The brilliant writer George Orwell authored two of the most powerful and acclaimed political books of the last century: 1984 and Animal Farm. The saying that interests me is usually attributed to him, and there are two popular versions: …
Quote Origin: Golf: Hit a Very Small Ball into an Even Smaller Hole, with Weapons Singularly Ill-Designed for the Purpose
Winston Churchill? Woodrow Wilson? George Curzon? Anonymous? Question for Quote Investigator: Friends know I am an avid golfer and recently a book of quotations about the sport was given to me as a present. This quote from Winston Churchill captures the exasperation I feel when attempting to chip my ball near to the pin: Golf …
Quote Origin: When the Facts Change, I Change My Mind. What Do You Do, Sir?
John Maynard Keynes? Paul Samuelson? Winston Churchill? Joan Robinson? Apocryphal? Question for Quote Investigator: John Maynard Keynes was an enormously influential economist, but some of his detractors complained that the opinions he expressed tended to change over the years. Once during a high-profile government hearing a critic accused him of being inconsistent, and Keynes reportedly …
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Quote Origin: Why Should Any Man Be Allowed to Buy a Printing Press and Disseminate Pernicious Opinions?
Vladimir Lenin? Winston Churchill? George Riddell? H. L. Mencken? Fictional? Question for Quote Investigator: I was thumbing through The Oxford Dictionary of Political Quotations to try and find a good saying about freedom of the press and I was stunned to see this hostile sentence: As to freedom of the press, why should any man …