Having spent recent weeks soliciting suggestions of favorite quotations and phrases from readers for the next edition of The Yale Book of Quotations, let me now again turn the tables. Do any readers have any quotations whose origins they would like me to attempt to trace?
Quotes Uncovered: A Call for Quotes
TAGS: fred shapiro, quotes
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Was it Jobs or Gates (or neither) who said “Innovation is creativity that ships.”?
“as awareness increases, so does coincidence”
“If you think too much, you’ll get a headache.”
Origin, please?
When I was in the Navy, I saw this quote attributed to Chester Nimitz. Years later, I contacted some Navy historians and they were unwilling to state he said this.
If you could find the origin of this, I would be very appreciative.
“If you are going to be on the spot, pick the spot”
I have a foggy memory of a quote on the wall in high school but I haven’t been able to find it with google… It’s something like:
“What you hope to be eventually, pretend to be every day and the qualities will seep into your soul”
That was not the exact quote I’m sure and it was attributed to someone, but I can’t remember who. Not to be confused with the similar but darker sentiment from Kurt Vonnegut’s Mother Night:
“Be careful what you pretend to be, because you are what you pretend to be.”
“God made religion; the Devil organized it”
Said to be an old Arabic comment but I’ve failed to track it so far.
“Civilization is one meal deep.”
“A scientific theory is a set of simplifying assumptions which makes the problem solvable.”
It’s the best definition I have ever run across, but I can’t find an attribution.