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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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“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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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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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 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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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What is the source of the quote "Hell is reserved for those who believe in it"?
I'm trying to identify the source of a quote, but I'm unsure of the exact wording. I think it's something to the effect of:
Hell is reserved for those who believe in it.
With an addendum (of whose ...
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Source of Brecht quote, "I'm not trying to prove I'm right, but to find out whether", in Christie Malry
In the B. S. Johnson book Christie Malry's Own Double Entry there is a quote attributed to Bertolt Brecht saying
I'm not trying to prove I'm right, but to find out whether.
I'm trying to find the ...
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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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Source of quote about businessmen conspiring when they meet
I'm trying to find the source of a quotation, which goes something like, "when two businessmen meet, they will naturally conspire to create a consortium against the interests of a third". ...
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Is “I no longer know If I wish to drown myself in love, vodka or the sea.” a real Franz Kafka quote?
It is attributed to him on various famous quote sites but strikes me as spurious.
the only source attribution is to Letters to Milena but I haven't read it in years and don't have a copy.
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Poet from the 50s / 60s who said being a poet was like standing out in a storm trying to be hit by lightning
as per subject, I remember a quote like being a poet meant standing out in thunderstorms trying to be struck by lighting and if you were lucky you might get struck maybe 4 times in your life. I ...
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Where did Orwell complain about exaggerated praise in reviews of mediocre books?
I am trying to locate a passage in which the author writes about the difficulty of praising books. He notes that praise has become so inflated that it's almost impossible to convey that a book is ...
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Is a paragraph starting with "She nervously peered over the edge." a placeholder text, or something else?
Is a paragraph starting with "She nervously peered over the edge." a placeholder text, or something else?
She nervously peered over the edge. She understood in her mind that the view was ...
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Story where professor claims a step in a proof "is obvious" when it is far from obvious
I picked up a funny story about a professor who stated that something was "obvious" after taking a long time to think about it: the story on the Wiktionary user page of 'DCDuring':
A ...
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Who does this Urdu proverb originate from?
First let me try my best to transliterate the Urdu version of the quote in question:
Insaan ho, to kisi ke kaam ao; warna khao, pio aur chale jao.
A rough translation would be something like:
If ...
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Is there a common origin to the phrase "the revolution will not be televised / mentioned in the newspaper"
I'm listening in an offhand way to G.K. Chesterton's Tales from the Long Bow audiobook and I heard the phrase:
when the real revolution happens it won't be mentioned in the newspapers
It sounded ...
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What is the source for C.S. Lewis' quote "A good book should be entertaining"?
What is the source for C.S. Lewis' quote "A good book should be entertaining"?
I am looking for a written source from the author and/or attempting to discover if he wasn't just recorded by ...
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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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Where can this long sentence ending with "won't find it here" be found in "Death in the Afternoon"?
I heard that Death in the Afternoon contains a long sentence beginning something like "Those looking for the Spain" followed by a succession of branching clauses drawing focus to Spain's ...
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Source of "talent is formed in solitude", attributed to Goethe
I'm annotating an essay by Paul Hensel and he quotes Goethe: "talent is formed in solitude, character in the currents and cataracts of the world." I can't seem to find what the source of ...
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Humorous quote about some minor indiscretion leading to a major crime
There is a humorous quote by Oscar Wilde or somebody about one minor bad act leading to a major bad act. This isn't it, but it was like this:
Don't wash your hands today, then you'll start shop-...
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Where did Doyle write that the Hound of the Baskervilles was originally intended as a "Victorian creeper", and what does this mean?
According to Wikipedia (section "Technique" in the Wikipedia page for the famous Sherlock Holmes story "The Hound of the Baskervilles"; emphasis mine):
The novel incorporates five ...
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