Quotes Uncovered
Here are more quote authors and origins Shapiro’s tracked down recently.
A while back, I invited readers to submit quotations for which they wanted me to try to trace the origins, using The Yale Book of Quotations and more recent research by me. Hundreds of people have responded via comments or e-mails. I am responding as best I can, a few per week.
Michael asked:
It’s often attributed to Samuel Clemens, but can you verify that he said “The coldest winter I ever saw was the summer I spent in San Francisco”?
The Yale Book of Quotations, which attempts to trace all famous quotations to their earliest sources, has the following:
“Anywhere is better than Paris. Paris the cold, Paris the drizzly, Paris the rainy, Paris the damnable. More than a hundred years ago somebody asked Quin, ‘Did you ever see such a winter in all your life before?’ ‘Yes,’ said he, ‘Last summer.’ I judge he spent his summer in Paris.”
Mark Twain, Letter to Lucius Fairchild, April 28, 1880. This letter is the closest source that has been found for the saying, frequently credited to Twain, that “The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.” The Quin referred to was an 18th-century actor and wit.
Patrick asked:
I have searched for this but cant find it; the quote is something like “I am a soldier so my children can be farmers so their children can be poets,” or something along those lines.
Again, The Yale Book of Quotations has the answer:
“I must study Politicks and War that my sons may have liberty to study Mathematicks and Philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematicks and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce, and agriculture, in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, musick, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelaine.” John Adams, Letter to Abigail Adams, May 12, 1780.
Do any readers have any other quotations whose origins they would like me to attempt to trace?
and 
. You can also watch it on 
Perhaps you could help out famous Science Fiction author William Gibson, who recently tried to trace down the origin of the following sentence, often attributed to George Orwell:
“People sleep peacefully in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf.”
http://www.williamgibsonbooks.com/blog/2009_07_01_archive.asp#6270237771654062727
“If you torture the data long enough, it will confess.” supposedly coming from Ronald Coase
i wanted to know who said (in reference to presidents faces on money) “i’ll have no part of something practiced by european monarchs.”
i don’t know if thats the correct wording or not, but the quote is pretty close to those lines. i’m pretty sure it was a founding father that said it.
I’d heard the ‘Twain quote as, “August in San Francisco,” rather than summer. This was published in my National Parks Service orientation manual last summer. I’d like to know the quote’s veracity as well, just to see where the Department of the Interior gets their facts from.
For Alan Gloeckle- perhaps this is a reference to the same quote, or the origin of the quote itself, but there is a poem by W. H. Auden called ‘Law, Like Love’ that contains the line-
“Law, says the judge as he looks down his nose,
Speaking clearly and most severely,
Law is as I’ve told you before,
Law is as you know I suppose,
Law is but let me explain it once more,
Law is The Law.”
Hope that helps.
Yes Sarah that is exactly the quote…I remember the judge’s nose!!!
Thanks much.