The Quote Verifier: Who Said What, Where, and WhenOur language is full of hundreds of quotations that are often cited but seldom confirmed. Ralph Keyes's The Quote Verifier considers not only classic misquotes such as "Nice guys finish last," and "Play it again, Sam," but more surprising ones such as "Ain't I a woman?" and "Golf is a good walk spoiled," as well as the origins of popular sayings such as "The opera ain't over till the fat lady sings," "No one washes a rented car," and "Make my day." |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 69
... Charles Haddon Spurgeon, who in a mid-nineteenth-century sermon, launched this observation into public discourse as “an old saying”? Since clever lines so routinely travel from obscure mouths to prominent ones, it is generally safe to ...
... Charles Dickens and a local wit. “I find every community has its lady who is remarkably bright in her repartee,” Wilde added, “and she is always credited with the latest bon mot going the rounds.” A good quip invariably works better ...
... Charles Kettering, pianist Eubie Blake, and—by Al Gore—baseball player Yogi Berra. Twain did once observe, “It isn't so astonishing the things that I can remember, as the number of things I can remember that aren't so,” but biographer ...
... Charles Colson. Verdict: Author unknown; not Charles Colson. “I laughed all the way to the BANK.” In 1954 the flamboyant musician Liberace capped a triumphal thirty-day tour with the first piano concert held at Madison Square Garden ...
... Charles about the pressure of public opinion on writers, “It is the public which controls us, and in the long run we must obey the beast.” Verdict: Words put in Alexander Hamilton's mouth. “BECAUSE it's there.” During George Mallory's ...
Contents
1 | |
BIBLIOGRAPHY | 259 |
SOURCE NOTES | 267 |
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS | 345 |
KEY WORD INDEX | 347 |
NAME INDEX | 375 |
SIDEBAR INDEX | 389 |