The Quote Verifier: Who Said What, Where, and WhenSt. Martin's Publishing Group, 1. apr 2007 - 416 pages Our 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 79
... included several misquotations. In one case after another, a search for the source of a popular quotation dead-ends with Reader's Digest. In earlier issues especially, verification of the many quotable quotes they published was not the ...
... included the word “ingloriously” in a Milton quotation, Oxford the correct word, “injuriously.” Any compiler of quotations is bound to make mistakes, of course. Getting some things wrong goes with the quote-compiling territory. Even ...
... included the line “It iz better to kno less than to kno so much that ain't so.” Across this handbill Billings wrote longhand, “You'd better not kno so much than know so many things that ain't so.” Apparently the humorist considered this ...
... included, as “a tale” once told to the author, the queen's “we are not amused” response to an inappropriate jest. Victoria's supposed comment was in circulation long before this book was published, however, having appeared in a magazine ...
... included the line “A billion here and a billion there might be piled up . . .” Thirteen years later, in 1938, the Times ran this unsigned observation about the federal budget: “It's a billion here and a billion there, and by and by it ...
Contents
1 | |
BIBLIOGRAPHY | 259 |
SOURCE NOTES | 267 |
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS | 345 |
KEY WORD INDEX | 347 |
NAME INDEX | 375 |
SIDEBAR INDEX | 389 |