Quote Investigator
banner
quoteinvestigator.com
Quote Investigator
@quoteinvestigator.com
Authoritative quotation information. Book: Hemingway Didn't Say That. Website receives 4.5 million visitors/year.

https://quoteinvestigator.com/about/
Happy holidays! Which famous intellectual wrote the following?

One of the symptoms of approaching nervous breakdown is the belief that one’s work is terribly important and that to take a holiday would bring all kinds of disaster

quoteinvestigator.com/2025/12/23/s...
December 25, 2025 at 3:27 AM
Did the Cheshire Cat of famous English fantasy author Lewis Carroll write the following?

I'm Not Crazy. My Reality Is Just Different Than Yours

quoteinvestigator.com/2025/12/16/my-reality/
December 16, 2025 at 9:02 AM
There were really three sides to the question: my side, your side, and the right side

Who said this in 1894: Arthur Brisbane? Wray Hunt? Dorothy Maddox?

quoteinvestigator.com/2025/11/30/r...
November 30, 2025 at 5:23 AM
Inside every old person There is a young person trying to get out

What statement did this saying evolve from?

quoteinvestigator.com/2025/11/26/i...
November 26, 2025 at 3:18 PM
Here is a link to the article I wrote:

Proverb Origin: A Bayonet Is a Weapon with a Worker at Each End
quoteinvestigator.com/2025/11/10/b...
November 26, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Misquotation is, in fact, the pride and privilege of the learned

A popular biographer wrote this. Who said it, and what does it mean?

quoteinvestigator.com/2025/11/23/m...
November 25, 2025 at 10:43 AM
A famous proverb encourages bold investors when markets are distressed:

Buy when there is blood in the streets

Was this said during the Paris Commune of 1871 or the Battle of Waterloo in 1815? Was this quotation apocryphal?

quoteinvestigator.com/2025/11/17/b...
November 17, 2025 at 8:06 PM
Can a duck swim? (Will a duck swim? Does a duck swim?)

This rhetorical phrase is used to respond to questions that are obviously true. How old is this rhetorical response?

quoteinvestigator.com/2025/11/14/d...
November 14, 2025 at 3:19 PM
Does a chicken have lips?

This rhetorical phrase is used to respond to questions that are obviously true and obviously false. What is the history of this confusing phrase? Here is a link to an investigation:

quoteinvestigator.com/2025/11/12/c...
November 12, 2025 at 1:13 PM
Your request from Nov 7 inspired the creation of a Quote Investigator article. Thanks!

A bayonet is a weapon with a worker at each end

quoteinvestigator.com/2025/11/10/b...

@thurberteam.bsky.social
@billy-atherton.bsky.social
November 10, 2025 at 6:13 AM
A bayonet is a weapon with a worker at each end

Who created this pacifist proverb: John Maclean? James Hudson? James Riley? H. L. Mencken? Anonymous?

quoteinvestigator.com/2025/11/10/b...
November 10, 2025 at 5:39 AM
April 3, 1939
Huddersfield Daily Examiner, England
Letter from L.H.

The job of the Labour Party is to unify the workers of this country, not to don the mantle of Don Quixote, for they must remember that a bayonet is a weapon with a worker at each end …

@thurberteam.bsky.social
‪@ihetz.bsky.social
November 8, 2025 at 3:02 AM
When the answer to a question is obviously affirmative the respondent can employ the following rhetorical phrase:

Is the Pope Catholic?

When did this phrase enter circulation?

quoteinvestigator.com/2025/11/07/p...
November 7, 2025 at 5:25 AM
Rotund director Alfred Hitchcock once argued with slim playwright George Bernard Shaw:

You look as if there is a famine in the land.
You look as if you are the cause of it.

Is this incident genuine or apocryphal?

quoteinvestigator.com/2025/11/04/f...
November 4, 2025 at 7:17 PM
(Part 1 of 2) Many musical instruments have been criticized using this template, e.g., ukulele, saxophone, bagpipes, accordion, and banjo

Quote Origin: My Idea of a Gentleman Is He Who Can Play a Cornet and Won’t

quoteinvestigator.com/2019/04/21/c...
November 3, 2025 at 8:46 PM
Inside every old person there is a young person wondering what happened

Who created this saying: Fantasy writer Terry Pratchett? Aphorist Ashleigh Brilliant? Gospel singer Cora Harvey Armstrong? Journalist Dan Sullivan? Anonymous?

quoteinvestigator.com/2025/11/01/o...
November 1, 2025 at 9:17 AM
You cannot awaken someone who is pretending to sleep

Did Mohandas Gandhi create this saying? Someone else?
Yoruba proverb? Navajo proverb?

quoteinvestigator.com/2025/10/29/p...
October 29, 2025 at 12:08 PM
Which pioneering woman comedian authored the following joke about aging?

"Who Would Want To Be 90?"
"Anyone Who Is 89"

quoteinvestigator.com/2025/10/26/o...
October 26, 2025 at 6:34 PM
Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequences

Did this saying originate in the 21st century?

quoteinvestigator.com/2025/10/24/f...
October 24, 2025 at 4:17 AM
Your request from yesterday about a quip attributed to W. C. Fields inspired the creation of a Quote Investigator article. Thanks! @lizardky.bsky.social

Well, a man’s got to believe something, and I believe I’ll have another drink.

quoteinvestigator.com/2025/10/22/b...
October 22, 2025 at 7:51 PM
Well, a man's got to believe something, and I believe I'll have another drink

Was this quip created by comedian W. C. Fields, humorist Peter De Vries, or someone else?

quoteinvestigator.com/2025/10/22/b...
October 22, 2025 at 7:47 PM
Libraries store the energy that fuels the imagination. They open up windows to the world

This remark has been credited to a person who created popular plays, movies, television programs (I Dream of Jeannie), and books (Rage of Angels). Who was it?

quoteinvestigator.com/2025/10/18/l...
October 19, 2025 at 2:28 AM
We all die twice; the first time is when we simply cease to be; the second, when we are forgotten.

QI article updated with precursor citation in 523 AD from Roman philosopher Boethius

quoteinvestigator.com/2025/10/15/d...
October 18, 2025 at 7:37 PM
We all die twice; the first time is when we simply cease to be; the second, when we are forgotten

Who said this: Hemingway? Banksy? Goethe? Laurie Anderson? Amelia B. Edwards? Sylvester Stallone? Anonymous?

quoteinvestigator.com/2025/10/15/d...
October 15, 2025 at 5:58 PM
Did Voltaire write the following? What was the original French phrasing?

One dies twice: to cease to live is nothing, but to cease to love and to be loved is an insupportable death

quoteinvestigator.com/2025/10/10/d...
October 10, 2025 at 5:48 PM