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.
Brian asked:
“What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger,” has been attributed to a lot of people, most notably, Friedrich Nietzsche. Any chance of scrounging that one up for me?
The Yale Book of Quotations has the following:
“What does not destroy me, makes me stronger.” Friedrich Nietzsche, The Twilight of the Idols, 1888 (translation by Walter Kaufmann).
This is an example of a very well-known and popular quotation that is omitted by both Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations and the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations.
Nylund asked:
In honor of the protests over the election in Iran, I was wondering about the expression, “It”s not the vote that counts, it’s who counts the votes.” I’ve often heard it attributed to Stalin, but I’m not sure if I believe that.
The YBQ has this:
Boss Tweed: “As long as I count the Votes, what are you going to do about it?” Thomas Nast, caption of cartoon, Harper’s Weekly, October 7, 1871. This cartoon puts these words in the mouth of New York politician William Marcy “Boss” Tweed, and they are usually attributed to Tweed, but Nast almost certainly originated them.
JK asked:
“History is written by the victors” seems to be attributed to Winston Churchill. Any ideas about its origin?
This is a proverb with no clear origin likely to be discoverable. The Yale Book of Quotations has the following as its earliest version:
“History is written by the survivors.” Social Forces, October 1931.
Do any readers have any other quotations whose origins they would like me to attempt to trace?
and 
. You can also watch it on 
“Pain is temporary, glory is forever” – a quick google search doesn’t reveal much, can you help me out?
I don’t know who said this: “The difference between communism in capitalism? In capitalism, man exploits man. In communism, it’s the other way around.”
What about “Sell the Sizzle, not the Steak?” I have heard it many times but never have found where it came from.
Happiness is positive cashflow. Any ideas?
“Music needs musicology like birds need ornithology”
Or something like that
A problem is a chance for you to do your best.
Duke Ellington
This is an example of turning the negative into a positive…………
‘Happiness is positive cashflow’ might derive from Dickens:
‘Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pound ought and six, result misery.’
from ‘David Copperfield’.
I have seen this gem attributed to Gabriel Garcia Marquez: “Love is many things. But more than anything, it is a disturbance of the digestive system.” However, I’ve never been able to find it in any of his works. Is it legitimately Garcia Marquez? and if so, where is it?