H. L. Mencken? Jo Petty? Max L. Forman? Apocryphal?
Illustration of a breaking chain from Pixabay
Question for Quote Investigator: Freedom is precious. Without continual vigilance, it disappears. Safeguarding it requires unrelenting commitment. A popular political commentator said something like the following about freedom:
No price that is ever asked for it is half the cost of doing without it.
This statement has been attributed to the Baltimore-based cultural critic H. L. Mencken; however, I have not found a solid citation. Would you please help me?
Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1924 H. L. Mencken published the collection “Prejudices Fourth Series” which contained the following. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
The ancient American tradition, in so far as it was vital and productive and civilized, was obviously a tradition of individualism and revolt, not of herd-morality and conformity …
In brief, we must be willing to pay a price for freedom, for no price that is ever asked for it is half the cost of doing without it.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
Oscar Wilde? Harold Mellor? Francis Douglas? Percy Colson? Beverley Baxter?
Heart-shaped arch of flowers from Unsplash
Question for Quote Investigator: When you are filled with love you nurture other people. The absence of love is bleak and discouraging. Here is a pertinent saying:
Life without love is like a sunless garden with dead flowers.
Apparently, the brilliant Irish wit Oscar Wilde crafted this emotional line or something similar. I am skeptical because Wilde is usually unsentimental. Would you please help me to find a citation if one exists?
Reply from Quote Investigator: Oscar Wilde died in 1900 after his imprisonment and the breaking of his spirit. In 1949 Francis Douglas, in collaboration with Percy Colson, published “Oscar Wilde and the Black Douglas”. The book discussed the harrowing downfall of Wilde precipitated by the actions of John Sholto Douglas, the 9th Marquess of Queensberry. The author Francis Douglas, the 11th Marquess of Queensberry, disagreed with his grandfather’s actions and was sympathetic to Wilde.
The book printed bons mots ascribed to Oscar Wilde such as these items. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
“It is only the very dull who like practical jokes.”
“If your sins find you out, why worry? It is when they find you in, that trouble begins.”
“Most religious teachers spend their time trying to prove the unproven by the unprovable.”
“Keep love in your heart. A life without it is like a sunless garden when the flowers are dead. The consciousness of loving and being loved brings a warmth and richness to life that nothing else can bring.”
The authors claimed that Harold Mellor, a wealthy admirer of Wilde, wrote down these statements. Between 1898 and 1900 Wilde visited and travelled with Mellor three times. Harold Mellor died in 1925. QI does not know precisely when Mellor recorded Wilde’s words.
Thus, evidence suggests that Oscar Wilde made the statements quoted above. However, the accuracy of their transcription depends on Harold Mellor’s memory and credibility. Further, this evidence was relayed through the co-authors Francis Douglas and Percy Colson.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
Waldemar Kaempffert? G. K. Chesterton? Apocryphal?
Illustration of a golden robot from Pixabay
Question for Quote Investigator: The ongoing progress in robotics reminds me of skeptical remarks such as the following:
(1) There will never be a robot, a tireless mechanism performing all the functions of a man.
(2) A robot would be brainless because even an ingenious technologist cannot make a collection of wheels, shafts, magnets, and wires think.
(3) There will never be a robot schoolmaster or governess.
Apparently, comments like these were made in the 1920s or 1930s. The first two statements have been attributed to U.S. science journalist Waldemar Kaempffert. The third statement has been attributed to prominent English literary figure G. K. Chesterton. I am not sure of the precise phrasing for any of these statements. Would you please explore this topic?
Reply from Quote Investigator: Waldemar Kaempffert was an acclaimed science journalist and museum director. He wrote for “Scientific American” and became the editor of “Popular Science Monthly”. In October 1927 Kaempffert published an article in “The New York Times” in which he speculated about the capabilities and limitations of future robots:1
There will never be a Robot—a brainless, tireless, unemotional mechanism fashioned in the image of a man, performing all the functions of a man, moving about stiffly but surely, pulling levers, turning control wheels, wielding broom, pick or shovel.
Medieval contrivers frittered away their talents in constructing lifelike automata that could write a name and play a tune or two, and that outwardly resembled Robots. The modern engineer has no patience with such fantastic creations. …
To drive home the limitations of an actual Robot, let us assume that an engineer undertook to construct one and to endow it with as many human talents as possible. The machine would, of necessity, be brainless, because even the most ingenious technologist cannot make a collection of wheels, shafts, magnets and wires think.
But it could move, hear, see and feel under human control. Instead of legs its creator would give it wheels for simplicity’s sake—wheels which would be driven by electric current supplied either by a battery or a little dynamo mounted within what might be called the “trunk.”
Its eyes would be photoelectric cells that would resemble the familiar vacuum tubes of a radio set and would perceive minute differences of light and darkness. Its ears would be telephone receivers …
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
Question for Quote Investigator: An influential banker once commented on the growing skepticism of U.S. citizens:
Heaven help America when she loses faith in slogans
Would you please tell me what prompted this remark and who delivered it?
Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1929 the United States experienced the stock market crash and the beginning of the Great Depression which continued for about ten years.
In April 1932 a meeting of the Academy of Political Science was held at the Hotel Astor in New York City. Sir Josiah Stamp, the director of the Bank of England, delivered a speech that was printed in the proceedings. Stamp commented on the disillusionment of the U.S. public. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
First of all, I notice a great loss of faith in institutions; institutions of government, institutions of control, institutions of finance, institutions of education no longer command the general confidence. … They feel doubtful about them. They have discovered, rightly or wrongly, that they are not the source of all wisdom.
Also I see a considerable lack of confidence in men whose names you would have considered as infallible, something to conjure with, a year or two ago. But worst of all, from the American point of view, there has been a loss of faith in slogans—and heaven help America when she loses faith in slogans!
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
Anaïs Nin? Lassie Benton? Elizabeth Appell? Jean Paul Richter? Orison Swett Marden? Apocryphal?
Picture of a lotus bud
Question for Quote Investigator: Growth and transformation are frightening. Yet, maintaining stasis is stultifying. Here are two versions of a popular metaphorical expression about accepting change:
(1) And the day came when the risk to remain closed in a bud, became more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
(2) Then the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
This saying has been attributed to prominent diarist Anaïs Nin, writer Lassie Benton, and writer Elizabeth Appell. Would you please explore this topic?
Reply from Quote Investigator: Researchers have uncovered no substantive evidence supporting the attribution to Anaïs Nin who died in 1977.
The earliest close match found by QI in a published book appeared in 1984 within “A Practical Approach to Human Behavior in Business” by Allen L. Appell of San Francisco State University. The saying appeared as a chapter epigraph which was ascribed to Lassie Benton:1
And the day came when the risk to remain closed in a bud, became more painful than the risk it took to blossom. —Lassie Benton
An important article clarifying the origin of the quotation appeared in 2013 on the website of Sky Blue Press which publishes works by Anaïs Nin together with a literary journal focused on Nin’s legacy.
The website published a note from Elizabeth Appell in which she claimed credit for the quotation. Appell also stated that she previously used the name Lassie Benton:2
I wrote it in 1979. I was Director of Public Relations for John F. Kennedy University in Orinda. One of my responsibilities was to write, edit, and publish the class schedule which included events, news, and class information for the up-coming quarter. …
Another wrinkle: at the time I was using my nickname, “Lassie” as well as my first husband’s last name, Benton. I was known as Lassie Benton. Since then I gave up the nickname to use my given name, Elizabeth, and remarried Allen Appell, hence Elizabeth Appell.
The message from Appell included a scan of an undated pamphlet page from John F. Kennedy University of Orinda, California displaying the following version of the saying:
… and then the day came when the risk to remain tight, in a bud, became more painful than the risk it took to blossom …
QI believes that Elizabeth Appell (Lassie Benton) is the leading candidate for creator of this expression although the precise phrasing has varied over time.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
André Gide? Leonardo da Vinci?Albert Camus?Carol Shields? Igor Stravinsky? Orson Welles? Apocryphal?
Mosaic version of The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh
Question for Quote Investigator: A scrappy independent movie director who was given a massive budget created a pretentious flop. A poet who wrote brilliant iambic pentameter could only compose pedestrian free verse. A musician who spent countless hours in the studio finally released an unlistenable album. These examples illustrate a compelling maxim. Here are three versions:
(1) Art lives from constraints and dies from freedom. (2) Art is born of constraint and dies of liberty. (3) Art is born of constraint and dies of too much freedom.
This adage has been attributed to French author André Gide, Italian polymath Leonardo da Vinci, French philosopher Albert Camus, and others. Here are two extended versions of the saying:
(1) Art is born of constraint, lives on conflict, and dies of liberty. (2) Art is born of constraint, thrives on struggle, dies of freedom.
Would you please explore this topic?
Reply from Quote Investigator: The earliest close match found by QI appeared in a speech titled “De L’Évolution du Théatre” (“On the Evolution of Theater”) delivered in Brussels by André Gide in 1904. The following passage in French is followed by an English translation. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
Le grand artiste est celui qu’exalte la gêne, à qui l’obstacle sert de tremplin. C’est au défaut même du marbre que Michel-Ange dut, raconte-t-on, d’inventer le geste ramassé du Moïse. C’est par le nombre restreint des voix dont il pouvait à la fois disposer sur la scène que, contraint, Eschyle dut d’inventer le silence de Prométhée lorsqu’on l’enchaîne au mont Caucase. La Grèce proscrivit celui qui ajouta une corde à la lyre. L’art naît de contrainte, vit de lutte, meurt de liberté.
The great artist is one whom constraint exalts, for whom an obstacle serves as a springboard. It was to a flaw in the very marble, so the story goes, that Michelangelo owed the invention of Moses’s compact, coiled posture. It was the limited number of voices available to him on stage that compelled Aeschylus to devise the silence of Prometheus as he was chained to Mount Caucasus. Greece banished the man who added a string to the lyre. Art is born of constraint, lives by struggle, and dies of freedom.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
Groucho Marx? Spike Milligan? Lydia Augusta Arsens? Tramp Starr? Dr. Parr? John Conolly? John Stuart Blackie? Tom Chalmers? Anonymous?
Sphere with illuminated cracks
Question for Quote Investigator: The word “cracked” has several slang meanings. The traditional slang meaning is crazy, foolish, or eccentric. Here are three versions of a comical saying which uses wordplay:
(1) You’ve got to be cracked to let the light in. (2) Blessed are the cracked, for they shall let in the light. (3) They were certainly cracked: but the crack let in light.
This quip has been attributed to Irish comedian Spike Milligan, Canadian politician Lydia Augusta Arsens, U.S comedian Groucho Marx, pseudonymous humorist Tramp Starr, Scottish classical scholar John Stuart Blackie, and others. Would you please explore this topic?
Reply from Quote Investigator: The earliest match found by QI appeared in an 1830 book titled “An Inquiry Concerning the Indications of Insanity” by John Conolly, Professor of Medicine at the University of London. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
Every county presents one or more specimens of individuals who are reputed scientific by those more ignorant of science than themselves; eccentric men, whose wandering attention has travelled over every subject … in the opinion of their neighbours, they become accounted “wonderfully clever men, but certainly a little mad.” The learned and benevolent Dr. Parr used to say of such men, that they were certainly cracked: but that the crack let in light;—and even then, it is to be feared, he estimated them too highly.
Dr. Parr probably corresponded to English scholar Samuel Parr who died in 1825. Parr is currently the leading candidate for coiner of this quip.
In 1841 English surgeon Walter Cooper Dendy published “The Philosophy of Mystery” which included a student character named Astrophel. This character credited the quip to Samuel Parr:2
But say, if there be (in vulgar words) a crack in this cranium of mine, may not this crack, as saith the learned Samuel Parr, “let in the light?”
If prophetic visions in the early ages came over the dying, why not in ours?
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
Walt Disney? Tom Batiuk? Gary Wright? Maurice Lutkin? Herb Caen? Chili Davis? Bumper Sticker? Anonymous?
Silhouette image of an old person and a young person from Unsplash
Question for Quote Investigator: Aging is an unavoidable part of the human experience, but it is not necessary to become staid and boring. Here is a pertinent saying:
Growing old is mandatory. Growing up is optional.
This remark has been attributed to entrepreneur Walt Disney, comic artist Tom Batiuk, newspaper columnist Herb Caen, and others. Would you please explore the provenance of this remark?
Reply from Quote Investigator: The earliest match found by QI appeared in “The Courier-Gazette” in McKinney, Texas in January 1986. The saying appeared in a piece called “Publisher’s Scratchpad” by someone using the initials JS, but the attribution was anonymous. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
Wish we’d been wise enough to come up with this one: “Growing old is mandatory. Growing up is optional.”
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
Arthur D. Little Consulting Firm? JoAnne Yates? John H. Dessauer? Ian H. Gordon? Horace Becker? JoAnne Yates? Apocryphal?
Illustration of a cat sitting on a photocopier
Question for Quote Investigator: Predicting the demand for an innovative product is remarkably difficult. Apparently, the company that invented the photocopier hired a prestigious consulting firm to estimate future sales. The result was a statement like the following:
The total market for photocopiers is at most five thousand units.
I do not know the exact phrasing of the statement. Also, I do not know the precise number of units. Would you please explore this topic?
Reply from Quote Investigator: Chemical engineer John H. Dessauer helped develop xerography and worked for the Haloid Company, which later became Xerox Corporation. In his 1971 book, “My Years with Xerox: The Billions Nobody Wanted,” Dessauer discussed a survey that sought to forecast demand for photocopiers. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
Haloid was still sponsoring a series of market surveys, for which it retained reputable New York firms. One of them, after questioning vast numbers of businessmen, reported that we could not look forward to placing more than five thousand copiers in American offices! It presented all sorts of evidence to bolster its dire warning. If its estimate was accurate, there was no hope whatever of recovering our investment in xerography. We might as well forget producing a copier and accept our loss.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
Douglas Adams? J. R. Williams? Bill Vaughan? Ron Burns? Anonymous?
Illustration of a jester’s hat
Question for Quote Investigator: There is a family of comical sayings which highlight the paradoxical intelligence of fools and idiots:
(1) Nothing is foolproof. Fools are entirely too ingenious. (2) They’re not idiot-proof because idiots are so damned inventive.
English humorist Douglas Adams employed this quip, but I do not know whether he coined it. Would you please explore the history of this joke?
Reply from Quote Investigator: This joke is difficult to trace because it can be expressed in numerous ways. Below is an overview with dates and attributions:
1934 May 21: Answering affirmative … “Is it possible to build a fool-proof highway?” … he has no idea of the ingenuity of the fools (Anonymous)
1934 Jul 12: Inventors make things … fool-proof, but they do not take into account the marvelous ingenuity of fools (Anonymous)
1942 Nov 04: “Like to see things … absolutely foolproof” “You never will, because as th’ fool foolers get more brilliant th’ fools get more brilliant too” (Canadian cartoonist J. R. Williams)
1946 Apr 01: The trouble with so-called fool-proof devices is that they usually underestimate the number and ingenuity of fools (Anonymous)
1949 Jan 11: Nothing is fool-proof. Fools are entirely too ingenious. (McFadyen’s Streamlines)
1957 July 07: They underestimate the fools who think there is any such thing as fool-proof inspection (Anonymous)
1961 Aug 05: All these fool-proof gadgets underestimate the fools (Anonymous)
1966 May 27: Safety enthusiasts who envision a fool-proof automobile underestimate us fools (Bill Vaughan)
1973 Mar 02: It is impossible to make anything foolproof because fools are so ingenious (Anonymous)
1979 Apr 21: It is impossible to make the ballot papers idiot proof because idiots are so incredibly ingenious (Bernard Goodsall)
1992: Mistake … trying to design something completely foolproof … underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools (Douglas Adams)
1993: You can’t make anything idiot proof because idiots are so ingenious (Attributed to Ron Burns)
1997 Jun 29: Nothing is fool-proof to a sufficiently talented fool (Anonymous bumper sticker)
2002 Aug 25: They’re not idiot-proof because idiots are so damned inventive (Jerry Fortburger)
Below are details for selected citations in chronological order.
