Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with quotation

Cite, please.

oinopaponton — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 16:07:42 -0800

Does anyone know what the source text of this D.H. Lawrence quotation is, or if it's even correctly attributed to him? Quotation inside. “Museums, museums, museums, object-lessons rigged out to illustrate the unsound theories of archaeologists, crazy attempts to co-ordinate and get into a fixed order that which has no fixed order and will not be co-coordinated! It is sickening! Why must all experience be systematized? A museum is not a first-hand contact: it is an illustrated lecture. And what one wants is the actual vital touch.”

I'd like to use this in an essay... but would feel stupid doing so without knowing the context. Googlefu not working out so well this time. Thanks!

Help me get these quotes right.

HeyAllie — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 13:30:14 -0800

Editors, I need your help with quotation marks! Which is correct? a) I sent him an article about "The X Factor". b) I sent him an article about "The X Factor." I've seen it used both ways. I tend to use option B, but more and more lately, I'm seeing option A as the more common usage.

"...and for the rest of our lives!" Who said it?

lilbizou — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 16:38:47 -0800

What is this quotation from? "...and tomorrow, and for the rest of our lives?" I think the beginning is something like "what are we going to do tonight..." and it might be from a young adult type novel. The person is carrying on a normal conversation and suddenly gets panicky/existential.

180 Percent Done

rlk — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 08:26:11 -0800

Canonicalize this aphorism: "When you're 90% finished, you're half-way done." Phrased otherwise, "First you do the first 90%, then you do the second 90%." I'm sure you've heard a similar expression. How was it phrased? I'm looking for the most widely recognized wording of the assertion that there's always far more work to be done than you estimate at the outset, preferably with a quotable source.

I'm aware of a Mythical Man Month reference, and I guess I want something a little more pithy.

Gandhi quotation attribution help

goethean — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 08:32:20 -0800

Widely attributed, unreferenced Gandhi quotation: "I like your Christ..." Authentic? According to many many people and several bumper stickers, Gandhi said: "I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ."

Having been burned before with a plausible but bogus Goethe quotation, I want to be sure that Gandhi said it before attributing it to him. Any idea how to go about verifying it? I already tried Google, Google Books, and Google Scholar.

other people's money

well_balanced — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 06:58:17 -0800

Quotefilter: A wise junkie once told me something that sounded suspiciously like a quotation. He said, "They'll spend any amount of your money to protect theirs." Does this ring a bell for anyone? I've had no luck thus far googling for variations.

Where is this quotation from, and how am I misremembering it?

telegraph — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 17:38:19 -0800

What novel (possibly or probably by Haruki Murakami) contains a speech or inner monologue with the phrase "So maybe I'm not such a good person after all"? And what's the actual text of the quotation? I hate to use my weekly question on this, but now it's gnawing at me and my Google skills have fallen short. I'm thinking of either a speech or inner monologue type passage that includes the phrase "So maybe I'm not such a good person after all," (or a close analogue of that), along with a sort of explanation of how that person can be low and mean. I know there's a speech with similar content but different wording in South of the Border, West of the Sun.

My intuition was that it's in The Wind-up Bird Chronicle, but like I said, my searches so far have been fruitless. I've read a lot of Murakami so it could easily be from any of his other novels or short stories... or something entirely different, though hopefully not.

Before the aquarium

sleevener — Sun, 03 May 2009 15:30:15 -0800

I'm looking for quotations or citations about "the aquarium," from before it existed. What I'm looking for will probably have been written by naturalists or inventors, or really anyone who had the idea of housing underwater creatures in a clear tank, and/or observing them, before such a thing was commonplace. I'm interested in the idea in a nascent form, and in how it's worded. Bonus points for very ancient quotes (which could mean Da Vinci, Aristotle, or some Sumerian guy), and bonus points as always for links to online sources. Thanks!

Please help before I make Google explode!

Rudy Gerner — Sun, 03 May 2009 09:35:49 -0800

Please help me find this exact quotation and its citation! There is a quote I read once somewhere that was a toast that a group of revolutionaries (I think communists) used to make and it was something like "Cheers to the success of our impossible task." At least that's how my brain remembers it. But whatever the quote is, I think its a toast and what it's doing is acknowledging both how difficult it is to make change while exhibiting the optimism of "knowing" that you can/will make it.

Does this ring a bell to anyone? If you can find the exact quote and its citation, I'd be very grateful. Thank you in advance.

Dylan quotation

goethean — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 07:33:51 -0800

I once heard this quotation by Bob Dylan to the effect that everybody is struggling in their own way. Anyone know the exact quotation?

What is the source and substance of this quote about dying?

Doug — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 02:43:55 -0800

Help me identify this quote about death, dying, and the end of the world! I have only the vaguest clues to go by, but I heard a quotation something like: if you want to make a dying man happy tell him everyone else is dying also. I don't remember where I read or heard the quote, and I don't remember who it was attributed to, though for some reason Sartre or Freud come to mind. Is this familiar to anyone? Google is failing me (or vice versa).

Make me wanna run faster and further in 58 characters.

Rudy Gerner — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 07:04:56 -0800

I am going the Nike+ route and am about to order an iPod Nano. I want an inspiring but not cheesy quotation engraved on the back. Ideas? I'd like something inspiring without being hokey (if that's possible) that will remind me to have a kickass run. I have 58 characters total, including spaces, punctuation, etc.

It doesn't have to be about running per se as long as it gets me in the mood to be a two-legged cheetah badass. I'm thinking the written-in-words equivalent of the song that plays during the Rocky training montage.

Anything spring to mind?

Unlike rain on your wedding day

ftrain — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 13:48:00 -0800

Someone, somewhere--some cultural critic, I think, someone who has yet to die, or who was alive within the last half-century (but I could be wrong there), once said something along the lines of "Irony is the laughter of the slave." Do you know who that was? I have searched, although I could have searched more thoroughly (i.e. physically removed myself from my chair and gone to the library). I might have rewritten Andrei Sinyavsky in my head; he wrote: "Irony is the laughter of the superfluous man." But he also wrote: "Irony is the faithful companion of unbelief and doubt; it vanishes as soon as there appears a faith that does not tolerate sacrilege..." Which is a different sentiment.

I have found these: "Sentimental irony is a dog that bays at the moon while pissing on graves." (Karl Kraus); "Irony in writing is a technique for increasing reader self-approval." (Jessamyn West [the dead one]); "We are all tourists in history, and irony is what we win in wars." (Anatole Broyard). But I'm still looking for the source of the laughter of the slave.

Quotefilter: Who said something along the lines of "The way to know a people is through its artists"?

Carillon — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 14:28:24 -0800

Quotefilter: Who said something along the lines of "The way to know a people is through its artists"? I don't have the exact qoute, but I think I remember it being attributed to Zweig. Howeverit was a while ago and I can't remember. My google-fu has failed on it and potential variations. Much thanks to the hive-mind if they can help me with this!

where does the phrase "where the bee sups" come from?

Grod — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 18:08:03 -0800

Where does the phrase "where the bee sups, there sups I" come from? I think that's a misquote because google fails me, and it's been bugging me.

Where are these quotes about reputation from?

eisenkr — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 20:50:10 -0800

[Quotation source-filter] I've found many references on the Internet to two similar quotes about losing a good reputation. The quotes are attributed to Warren Buffett and Benjamin Franklin, but I haven't been able to pin down what the original source is. The full text of the quotes are inside. The quotes are:

"It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently."

Warren Buffett

"It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation, and only one bad one to lose it"

Benjamin Franklin

I'd love to hear anybody's ideas about where to find the definitive source of these quotations.

a piece of work

Pater Aletheias — Fri, 30 May 2008 19:14:10 -0800

I'm looking for quotations or video clips which deal with what it means to be human. The only one I can come up with is:

Hamlet:
What a piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how
infinite in faculties, in form and moving how express and
admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like
a god! the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals—and yet,
to me, what is this quintessence of dust? Man delights not me—
nor woman neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so.

Anything, popular or classic, fits the bill, if it's very focused on the nature of humanity. I'd like a variety of perspectives for my project.

TIA!

Feynman made it too damn easy.

jmhodges — Fri, 02 May 2008 21:01:42 -0800

Quotation-filter. I'm trying to remember how a quotation went concerning Richard Feynman's lectures on physics. To paraphrase it: "You would be in his lectures believing you could do the physics, but when you went home, you realized you were not Feynman." Anyone have a clue?

Where does this quote come from?

talitha_kumi — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 05:54:18 -0800

"The soul perishes not of dark, but of cold." - Where does this quote come from? "The soul perishes not of dark
But of cold.
The soul in deep distress
Seeks not light but warmth,
Not counsel but understanding."

I've come across this phrase (verse?) a couple of times, generally as the opening profundity on a sappy fanfic story. But where does it come from originally? The only other references I can find when searching individual lines on Google are christian apologetics and sermons regarding Job's three comforters. But the oldest of these is from 2006, and the fanfic where I encountered it first was uploaded in 1999, so the sermons can't be the source. Any ideas?

Is "an X is just an X, and it is Y that Z" a snowclone?

ErWenn — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 22:00:11 -0800

In , "Molecular Ethology: an Immodest Proposal for Semantic Clarification", Heinz von Foerster says To escape this dilemma it is only necessary to recall that an urn is an urn, and it is animals that learn. Is this a reference to some other phrase (quotation, idiom, or otherwise) of the form "an X is just an X, and it is Y that Z"? I ask because it shows up as the conclusion to one of the most ridiculous arguments I've ever heard, and I might be more slightly more forgiving if he's just trying to be funny. I got suspicious because it's the only phrase in the paper that rhymes.

Things I do not think he is referencing:
1) Gertrude Stein: Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose.
2) Sigmund Apocryphal Freud: Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
3) Plutarch by way of Erasmus the Not-very-good-with-Greek: ...calling a fig a fig, and a spade a spade
4) Louis Armstrong: A kiss is still a kiss; a sigh is just a sigh

Help with a Quote

mpls2 — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 06:49:27 -0800

"It's a world about men, and completely devoid of men." Who said that, and what is "it"?

Thanks!

Where is this idea from? "You can be a connoisseur of anything, even driveway gravel"

k7lim — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 17:49:31 -0800

Where is this idea from? "You can be a connoisseur of anything, even driveway gravel" I have this paraphrased idea in my mind that I swear I read somewhere. However, I can't seem to remember its source. It goes something like this: "One can be a connoisseur of anything. Look at this pile of gravel in my hand. I could pay attention to every facet common among pieces of gravel, and every nuance unique to a piece of gravel and become a gravel snob." I THINK it's from a book. Specifically a fiction book. I think a character said it to another in some urban setting. Maybe it was "Murray" from _White Noise_? This character is one that might (unfortunately) cause a casting director to call Jeff Goldblum.

It is also possible that it is from a movie or that one of my wise friends originated the this idea (though these are unlikely, I remember it being delivered as word on page). It is also possible that I dreamed someone saying it or that I dreamed reading it (Though has that ever been documented, reading novel text in dreams?). If no one has ever heard of this, maybe I'll claim it as my own little rant.

More candidates:

Vonnegut?
_Nation of Rebels_ by Heath and Potter?
_Birth of Plenty_?
_Jurassic Park_?????

We're all dying?

jckll — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 13:08:05 -0800

Looking for some source of a quote about, or the general idea that, we are all slowly dying, but some are closer than others. Having this discussion with a friend over whether the idea that everyone is slowly dying, some being closer than others, is just one of those ideas that everyone has at one point or another, or if there is some philosopher, or philosophic school (or any other school or "thinker") who first formulated this idea.

Any help? A link to a quotation/citation would be awesome. I know I'm not being real specific, but I think there's got to be something out there that meets the criteria...

Mark Twain in Recovery

macinchik — Sun, 12 Aug 2007 22:00:38 -0800

Why is the quote "Denial ain't just a river in Egypt" so often attributed to Mark Twain? Is this not an anachronism? Does anyone know the real origin of this phrase?

"The young die young that they may avoid corruption. The old live long that they may repent."

Pater Aletheias — Mon, 30 Jul 2007 09:42:16 -0800

Can anyone identity the source of this saying? "The young die young that they may avoid corruption. The old live long that they may repent." That may not be the exact wording. Do you know of a line like it? That's all the information I have. TIA