Questions tagged [quote-source]
Questions seeking to identify the source of a quote. If possible, include the exact quote whose origin you're seeking, or describe it as closely as you can. (For questions seeking to identify a entire story or work of literature from some remembered details, use the [identification-request] tag instead.)
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What is the source of the quote "You can see a lot, just by looking"?
What is the source of:
You can see a lot, just by looking. --- Yogi Berra
I'd like a year, at least, and maybe where it appeared in print.
A different version is at https://www.brainyquote.com/...
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Does the phrase "Jack of all trades, often times better than a master of one" come from Shakespeare?
"A jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one" is apparently a quote by William Shakespeare.
I have searched through the complete works of Shakespeare ...
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Where was the phrase "behind the wind" first used?
In Millennium: A History of the Last Thousand Years, chapter 4 ("The World Behind the Wind"), the second-to-last sentence:
On the evidence of the events of the fifteenth century, in the world east ...
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Source and phrasing of quote on knowledge and toil
I vaguely remember a quote one of my professors used (a long time ago) in one of his lectures about the difficulty of acquiring knowledge. It went along the lines of: "Toil is the currency used ...
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Is the deep source of the poetic inspiration for "A Boston Toast", specifically the Williams College song "Here's to old Fort Massachusetts", lost?
This question is in reference to the enduring New England aphorism "where the Lowells talk only to the Cabots, and the Cabots talk only to God." I arrived at this question after reading A.M. ...
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Did George Bernard Shaw write the poem "Living Grave"?
You can read it here
The poem gets shared a lot in vegan circles but I can't find where it was originally published.
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"There is only one thing that I dread: not to be worthy of my sufferings" — where does this Dostoyevsky quote come from?
I read Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning and he quoted Fyodor Dostoevsky as follows:
Dostoevski said once, "There is only one thing that I dread: not to be worthy of my sufferings."
...
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Did Sarojini Naidu say this: When the house is on fire, the poet should stop singing...?
Did Sarojini Naidu say something about this:
"When the house is on fire, the poet should stop singing, and get the
buckets to put out the fire."
I got this from a FB post. But I want to find out ...
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Where else did Rilke mention John on Patmos?
It is well known and can be inferred by an online search that Rilke has used the comparison with the writing Johannes auf Patmos in The notebooks of Malte Laurid Brigge, namely in the 57th chapter of ...
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Seeking origin and original wording of a quotation attributed to Shakespeare
During a Pub quiz early this week, a Shakespeare quote emerged in German translation, and I am keen to know the original wording and the work it stems from, or if it is possibly part of his notes.
...
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Where does the quote “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right” come from?
The quote "If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you'll most certainly be right" is often attributed to Steve Jobs, but a quote posted on LibQuotes suggests that Steve Jobs ...
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St. Augustine quote from Terri Cheney's Manic
In her autobiography Manic, Terri Cheney quotes Augustine: "Even monsters are divine creatures and in some way they too belong to the providential order of nature" (p. 88). I can't find this ...
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What is the background of the epigram "I'm not a nitpicker nor a nitpicker's son, but I'll pick your nits 'til the nitpicker comes"?
I've known of the saying "I'm not a nitpicker nor a nitpicker's son, but I'll pick your nits 'til the nitpicker comes" since I was young, and so have the local county librarians. Where does ...
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What did Pope intend to say by "Whatever is, is right"?
What did Pope intend to say by "Whatever is, is right"?
Source: The Well-Educated Mind by Susan Wise Bauer (2nd edition, 2016), p. 86, middle.
Related to this is one final question: What ...
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Where did Rousseau say, "There is nothing better than the encouragement of a good friend"?
A lot of people quote Jean-Jacques Rousseau as saying, "There is nothing better than the encouragement of a good friend". However, I have been unable to find where this comes from.
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Who said that history is a lie/fable agreed upon?
The following quote is commonly attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte:
History is a set of lies agreed upon.
Even to the extent that a book about Napoleon was written with this title. But even a more ...
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Looking for quote from a Native American from Wounded Knee era
I stumbled across a quote by a Native American, in reference to the events following Wounded Knee.
I think I came across it on wikipedia in one of the entries referenced from the Wounded Knee page or ...
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Source of alleged San Ignacio of Lyola quote: ‘In a besieged city, all dissent is treason.’
I'm trying to find the source of the quote in the title.
This Guardian article from 2021 quotes ‘Hal Klepak, professor emeritus of history and strategy at the Royal Military College of Canada’ as ...
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Where did Jacques tell this story of how the mole accent was from truck-driving through Somerset?
According to the Redwall wiki page on moles,
The mole dialect is derived from the region of Somerset, England. Brian Jacques frequently tales the story of how when he was a truck driver, he drove ...
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Who wrote this poem?
This is what grief is.
A hole ripped through the very fabric of your being.
The hole eventually heals along the jagged edges that remain. It may even shrink in size.
But that hole will always be there....
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Quote about the difference between talking about helping specific people and helping The People (in a political context)
I'm trying to find a quote about the dangers of political figures/radicals/revolutionaries/whomever shifting the rhetoric about their actions from them benefiting specific people to them benefiting ...
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Does Don Quijote in fact say "Facts are the enemy of truth"?
I recall a quote of the sort "Facts are the enemy of truth" attributed to Miguel de Cervantes in his book Don Quijote de la Mancha. However, I could not find the quote in the book by ...
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Where did Euripides say "keep a balance in your life"?
I've seen this attributed to Euripides in various places:
The best and safest thing is to keep a balance in your life, acknowledge the great powers around us and in us. If you can do that, and live ...
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Is this passage from "Speaker for the Dead" a quote or an original?
In "Speaker for the Dead" (chapter 8, p. 132 of the Author's Definitive Edition), Ender says "es solo fecundo e vou plantar jardim ai", which Novahina translates as "thou art ...
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Finding the source of this quote about prediction and lying
I have this quote in my mind,but I cannot find the source for it: "Someone who claims to predict the future is lying, even if later proven right".
I thought it was a variation of something ...
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Did Rumi actually say "Silence is the language of God; all else is poor translation"?
Silence is the language of God; all else is poor translation.
I found this quote, like many, attributed to Rumi (one, two, three non-verifiable sources). Since Rumi quotes are notoriously often ...
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"Tradition is meant to be broken" - who said it, Emerson or Thoreau?
I seem to recall a quote from either Ralph Waldo Emerson or Henry David Thoreau that was something like "Tradition is meant to be broken." Which of them said it?
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Quote from Chekhov about a person who does not answer a letter
On the Internet, one often comes across, in different versions, Chekhov's statement that a person who does not answer a letter is like a person who rejects a hand extended to him for a handshake.
...
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Did Dorothy Parker really say Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged should be thrown with great force?
According to some internet sources, Dorothy Parker did not think highly of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. For example, Brian Leiter (University of Chicago Law School), tweeted the following as 'Dorothy ...
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“Most of the trouble in the world is caused by people wanting to be important.” Is this a genuine TS Eliot quote?
Most of the trouble in the world is caused by people wanting to be important.
This quote has been attributed to TS Eliot, but I can't find any sources for it outside lists of inspirational quotes, ...
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Did Eliezer Yudkowsky read the original Harry Potter books?
This question has been asked on Reddit but without getting any properly sourced answer. Apparently there is a rumour on the internet that Eliezer Yudkowsky, author of the Harry Potter fan fiction ...
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Strange purported David Foster Wallace quote
You say you would only love a woman who is a reader and at least as intelligent as you. This is a challenge. Not on account of women, but the condition of Americans generally. If you were a homosexual ...
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Locating a quote in Dostoevsky's The Idiot
I am trying to locate this quote that I came across. I believe it was spoken by Aglaya (or Nastasya?) in The Idiot, but I'm having trouble locating it:
“I want to talk about everything with at least ...
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Source of quote: "Speaking the truth that somebody wants you not to publish is journalism. Everything else is marketing."
Heard from a BitCoin motivational speaker:
Oscar Wilde said, "Speaking the truth that somebody wants you not to publish is journalism. Everything else is marketing."
However, we all know ...
CommunityBot
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Which mystery writer said they picked the murderer only after writing the book?
A discussion of murder mysteries on Twitter included this claim:
Agatha Christie is on record as saying that she didn’t decide who the murderer was until she was ready to write the last chapter—then ...
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Did Koestler coin "mimophant"?
Wikipedia says:
Koestler is said to have coined the word mimophant to describe Bobby Fischer.
There are two sources given for this statement. One of them is not a source but simply a quote defining ...
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What is the source of this David Foster Wallace quote? Can't tell if it's actually him or not
Fiction is one of the few experiences where loneliness can be both confronted and relieved. Drugs, movies where stuff blows up, loud parties -- all these chase away loneliness by making me forget my ...
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What is the source of Hannah Arendt's quote about Les Mots by Sartre?
Earlier this year, Samantha Rose Hill, who has been working on a book about Hannah Arendt, tweeted,
"I just finished reading Sartre's Les Mots—and was so disgusted that I was almost tempted to ...
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Where does this Greg Anderson quote come from?
I see various people attribute the quote, "Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it" to Greg Anderson. However, I haven't been ...
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Where did this quote come from: "What is money / tis something tis nothing"
What is money
tis something tis nothing
tis mine tis yours
tis been a slave to thousands and will be a slave to thousands hence
He who takes my purse takes naught
He filches from me my good name ...
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Who wrote this particular poem in Zinky Boys?
Zinky Boys refers to the following (rather morbid in my opinion) poem:
Women and wine are fine
But a real man needs more
The sweet taste of war
The interviewee mentioned that that bit of verse was ...
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Looking for a quote about the importance of writing about women's stories, no matter how 'small' they are
I had a read a quote a long time ago by a famous author who was talking about how she was asked why she thought she should write about something as 'insignificant' as women talking in rooms when she ...
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What is the origin of this quote about God, Flies, and Spiders?
I recently came across this comment on a YouTube video:
Even god has fruit flies, and for god sized fruit flies you need a god sized spider to keep god's kitchen clean
Maybe it's just deja vu, but I ...
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Looking for the source of a quotation about how to draw beautifully
I vaguely remember a quotation that I might have read in a book many years ago, but can't remember exactly, what or where that was. Various search engines have been of little help, so far. It goes ...
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"There are three sorts of people: those who are alive, those who are dead, and those who are at sea." Did Aristotle really say this?
The famous sentence "There are three sorts of people: those who are alive, those who are dead, and those who are at sea" is often attributed to Aristotle.
However, I was unable to find an ...
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Source of the quote "Life is a balance between holding on and letting go" from Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī
There is a quote in the Internet which says: "Life is a balance between holding on and letting go". People cited it to Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhī (Rumi). My question is that:
What is the ...
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Origin of "The bells! The bells!" quote
The quote "The bells! The bells!" is often associated with Quasimodo from The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo, but I can't find any source to actually corroborate that.
It doesn't ...
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Looking for location of a quote, "Nothing can work damage to me except myself", attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson
In what piece of work by Ralph Waldo Emerson can one find the following quote?
Nothing can work damage to me except myself; the damage that I sustain I carry about with me and never am a real ...
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Origin of quote about the manipulation of words in Dan Simmons' "Hyperion"
In Hyperion (or The Fall of Hyperion, can't remember), from Simmons, Martin Silenus (the poet) uses a quote during his story.
I am not sure if this is a quote from Keats (can't find anything related), ...
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Quote for the "dark ages" and "middle ages"?
I'm reading how Francesco Petrarch coined the terms "dark ages" and "middle ages" but I can't find anything remotely resembling a quote for where he coined these terms.
Where, in ...
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