Quote Investigator

Eons ago, when email was still pure text, I got one with the subject line, "What Duke students say about UNC and what UNC student say about Duke". I got almost none of the jokes, but I still remember it as one of the funniest things I've ever been sent.

Reminds me of a joke I heard circa 1980: MIT graduates will be the scientists and engineers who build the future. And Stanford grads will be their bosses.

Oxford people think they own the world. Cambridge people do not care who owns the world Was this saying coined by the English editor James Payn, the Bishop of London Mandell Creighton, the romance novelist Helen Ricker Beebe, or someone else? quoteinvestigator.com/2026/10/24/o...

Everybody Talks, Nobody Listens. Good Listeners Are as Rare as White Crows Is this quotation genuinely by activist and lecturer Helen Keller, or is it apocryphal? quoteinvestigator.com/2026/10/21/w...

I posted the aphelis link to that Asimov Newsweek article recently. It’s depressing that it continues to be relevant 46 years later.

Your messages from 2022 and 2026 inspired the creation of a Quote Investigator article located here: quoteinvestigator.com/2026/10/20/f... @sferrara.bsky.social @lizardky.bsky.social

It Is the Supreme Art of the Teacher to Awaken Joy in Creative Expression and Knowledge Is this statement from Albert Einstein, Anatole France, or a random person nobody remembers? quoteinvestigator.com/2026/10/17/t...

Life Is Like a Roll of Toilet Paper. The Closer It Gets to the End, the Faster It Goes U.S. broadcast personality Andy Rooney has received credit for this folksy saying. Did he ever say it? quoteinvestigator.com/2026/10/15/r...

How old is the saying “Laws are like sausages. It’s better not to see them being made” — and who said it first? (Nope, it wasn’t Otto von Bismarck.) Those questions are addressed in the latest post on my This Day in Quotes blog. Here's the link→ bit.ly/LawsandSausa...

Freedom — No Price That Is Ever Asked for It Is Half the Cost of Doing Without It Attributed to the Sage of Baltimore. Who was that and is the attribution correct? quoteinvestigator.com/2026/10/14/f...

Was the following from Oscar Wilde, a greeting card company, or someone else? Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. quoteinvestigator.com/2026/10/11/s...

(1) Even the most ingenious technologist cannot make a collection of wheels, shafts, magnets and wires think. (2) There will never be a robot schoolmaster or governess. Insights from 1927 and 1928 quoteinvestigator.com/2026/10/07/n...

Entertaining statement from popular biographer Walter Isaacson on May 13, 2007, in The New York Times within a book review titled "The Empire in the Mirror"

Exasperating comic for: Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. 1905, George Santayana in The Life of Reason, Or The Phases of Human Progress

honey wake up prior citation just dropped* * This is the first and last time I will activate this meme.

For years I've attributed this to Oscar Wilde. Just shows you how wrong I can be.

Update: Earlier instance of a very popular saying: "That man" people used to say in Paris when I was there, "wrote a long book because he did not have the leisure to write a short one" 1652, Jean-Louis Guez de Balzac in Socrate Chrestien quoteinvestigator.com/2012/04/28/s...

A famous banker said: Heaven help America when she loses faith in slogans What prompted this remark and who delivered it? quoteinvestigator.com/2026/10/03/f...

The Day Came When the Risk to Remain Tight in a Bud Was More Painful Than the Risk It Took to Blossom Who crafted this statement: Anaïs Nin? Lassie Benton? Elizabeth Appell? Anonymous? quoteinvestigator.com/2026/10/01/b...

Art is born of constraint, lives by struggle, and dies of freedom Who composed this maxim: André Gide? Albert Camus? Leonardo da Vinci What does it mean? quoteinvestigator.com/2026/09/29/a...

QI helped the brilliant language maven Nancy Friedman @fritinancy.bsky.social find citations for vagmaxxing. Now, Nancy has posted a piece about the terms: pervert glasses, meat proxy, and vagmaxxing Before clicking, please note the content warning: ickiness

Blessed Are the Cracked For They Shall Let in the Light Who originated this type of wordplay joke: Groucho Marx? Spike Milligan? Lydia Augusta Arsens? John Stuart Blackie? Dr. Parr? Anonymous? quoteinvestigator.com/2026/09/24/c...

Peter Pan?

Listening to Rutherford and Fry’s Guide to absolutely everything. This quote came up but they told it’s origin could be apocryphal so I turned to @quoteinvestigator.com Einstein propably actually said it. quoteinvestigator.com/2014/11/24/h...

Quote Origin: Growing Old Is Mandatory. Growing Up Is Optional Who said this: Gary Wright? Maurice Lutkin? Herb Caen? Chili Davis? Bumper Sticker? Anonymous? quoteinvestigator.com/2026/09/21/g...

It raineth by th’ eternal laws Upon the just and unjust fella; But mostly on the just, because The unjust steals the just’s umbrella.

Did a management consulting firm make the following prediction? The world market for copiers will never exceed 5,000 units quoteinvestigator.com/2026/09/19/m...

It Is Impossible To Make Anything Foolproof Because Fools Are So Ingenious Who created the first quip of this type: English novelist Douglas Adams? Canadian cartoonist J. R. Williams? U.S. columnist Bill Vaughan? Anonymous? quoteinvestigator.com/2026/09/17/f...

Very old, as it turns out.

Maybe. The good germs in your gut are collectively called probiotics

You Can’t Live With Them, and You Can't Live Without Them How old is this saying? What was the topic: Women? Men? Neighbors? Wicked people? Irish people? quoteinvestigator.com/2026/09/14/l...

Well, no matter who said it, it's still true.

Your discussion thread from Sep 7, 2026 inspired the creation of a Quote Investigator article Quacks are the greatest liars in the world, except their patients quoteinvestigator.com/2026/09/09/q... @clgood.bsky.social @briandunning.bsky.social

Quacks are the greatest liars in the world, except their patients Who coined this saying: U.S. statesman Benjamin Franklin? U.S. physician Benjamin Rush? Scottish physician David Pitcairn? Anonymous? quoteinvestigator.com/2026/09/09/q...

Click articles when you search! You can quote me on that.

#GoodOne

You desire to know the truth about quotations. You are conscientious, thoughtful, brilliant, and beautiful in a cerebral way! Thanks for following and visiting the QI website

Thanks to the people who responded to my comment about AI and changes occurring in website traffic / economics Happily, there are still thousands of visitors to the QI website each day. Also, the QI research is helping people share accurate and entertaining information

Your discussion thread from Aug 28, 2026 inspired the creation of a Quote Investigator article The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any quoteinvestigator.com/2026/09/06/g... @sanddorn.bsky.social @guynes.bsky.social @stephenshapiro.bsky.social

The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any Who said this: Alice Walker? Rhona Raskins? William Martin? Anonymous? quoteinvestigator.com/2026/09/06/g...

AI systems read the Quote Investigator (QI) website and use the information it provides. AI systems do cite the QI website Website traffic is declining sharply because of AI tools such as Google AI Overviews. The result is "zero-click" searches @bjkeefe.bsky.social @yastreblyansky.bsky.social

The following Quote Investigator article has been updated with six new citations. Thanks to Pete Morris, Ralf Buelow, Allan Olley, and I. B. Cohen I think there is a world market for about five computers quoteinvestigator.com/2026/08/29/m...

Gloria Steinem employed memorable expressions Admirably, she credited others for creating several of these memorable expressions