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Hemingway Didn't Say That: The Truth Behind Familiar Quotations
”Extensive and brilliant investigations…a tour de force of detective work…Mr. O’Toole is a beacon of accuracy who should inspire all readers who prefer their facts real rather than phony.” ― Wall Street Journal Everywhere you look, you’ll find viral quotable wisdom attributed to icons ranging from Abraham Lincoln to Mark Twain, from Cicero to Woody Allen. But more often than not, these attributions are false. Garson O’Toole―the Internet’s foremost investigator into the dubious origins of our most repeated quotations, aphorisms, and everyday sayings―collects his efforts into a first-ever encyclopedia of corrective popular history. Containing an enormous amount of original research, this delightful compendium presents information previously unavailable to readers, writers, and scholars. It also serves as the first careful examination of what causes misquotations and how they spread across the globe. Using the massive expansion in online databases as well as old-fashioned gumshoe archival digging, O’Toole provides a fascinating study of our modern abilities to find and correct misinformation. As Carl Sagan did not say, “Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.”
396 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 2017
4121 people are currently reading
4042 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 237 reviews
March 27, 2017
Remember that kid, (Jared?), in Miss Willoughby's sixth grade class who kept raising his hand to let the rest of the class know how smart he was? Whether it was the name of Alexander's horse or special uses of the semi-colon, he couldn't wait to share.
If you can't get over that, you won't be able to enjoy Garson O'Toole's book.
There is a tremedous amount of reasearch that went into hunting down the origins ... the true origins ... of a bushel of familiar quotations. I found it eddifying is small doses. Here is one of the worst, just so you are warned:
Thomas Edison is often given as the source of "genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration." It turns out that the closest he came was saying: "Two per cent is genius and ninety-eight per cent is hard work."
O'Toole tracks this from a lecturer of the same time period named Kate Sanborn who offered that "genius is inspiration, talent and perspiration." Some "Idaho newspaper" several years later upped it from 98% to 99%. Then it appeared in a 1910 biography, Edison: His Life and Inventions.
Next it appears in a Harper's Magazine article in 1932 by a man who worked in Edison's laboratory.
There are more interesting examples, but a little goes a long way. Still, each quote gets only a few pages of attention, so read in small doses, it can be enjoyable. You decide.
If you can't get over that, you won't be able to enjoy Garson O'Toole's book.
There is a tremedous amount of reasearch that went into hunting down the origins ... the true origins ... of a bushel of familiar quotations. I found it eddifying is small doses. Here is one of the worst, just so you are warned:
Thomas Edison is often given as the source of "genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration." It turns out that the closest he came was saying: "Two per cent is genius and ninety-eight per cent is hard work."
O'Toole tracks this from a lecturer of the same time period named Kate Sanborn who offered that "genius is inspiration, talent and perspiration." Some "Idaho newspaper" several years later upped it from 98% to 99%. Then it appeared in a 1910 biography, Edison: His Life and Inventions.
Next it appears in a Harper's Magazine article in 1932 by a man who worked in Edison's laboratory.
There are more interesting examples, but a little goes a long way. Still, each quote gets only a few pages of attention, so read in small doses, it can be enjoyable. You decide.
October 17, 2019
"For sale. Baby shoes. Never worn."I am sure most of us are familiar with the above "short-short" story, reportedly written by Ernest Hemingway as part of a bet during a luncheon, to write a heartbreaking short story in six words. The minimalist author immediately penned the above tale of hope and heartbreak. It's perfect: we can imagine the expectant parents, the unspeakable tragedy and the quiet despair afterwards - truly worthy of the master storyteller.
There's just one teensy problem - it never happened.
In this day of social media mayhem, we are bombarded day in and day out with nuggets of wisdom from all over the cyber world, which we read, savour and share with nary a thought for their veracity. This is indeed the post-truth world. In case of quotes, I would call it the "post-it" truth world, because the dead and buried savants are dispensing wisdom by pasting virtual post-it notes on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and whatnot. Most of these eminent personalities would be turning in their grave at the thought of the inanities put into their mouth by cyber-warriors.
At Quote Investigator, Garson O'Toole has made it his business to trace quotes to their origin - often with surprising results. Many of these quotes have been attributed to the wrong person: many have been substantially modified from their original meaning: and the origins of many are shrouded in mystery, lost in the mist of time. This book is a compilation his investigations on a handful of quotes, and makes interesting reading.
O'Toole posits the following mechanisms for quotes becoming misquotes:
1. Synthesis (and streamlining): Quotes are simplified and condensed for easy memorisation, many a time ending up in distortion.
2. Ventriloquy: A statement about a celebrity's ideas by an observer is so characteristic and crisp, it gets assigned to her over a period of time.
3. Proverbial Wisdom: Quotations whose origins are obscure are often assigned the status of proverbs.
4. Textual Proximity: When a well-known name appears in a book or article, sometimes a nearby quotation (created by a different person) is taken and reassigned to the well-known name.
5. Real-World Proximity: The ascription of a quotation shifts from one person to another because the two persons are closely associated in real life.
6. Similar Names: A quotation from person sharing a name with a celebrity, gets assigned to the more famous person.
7. Concoctions: Deliberate or accidental forgery.
8. Historical Fiction: When a real-life character is fictionalised or dramatised, the author speaks through her: and people assume that the person really said it.
9. Capture: When a famous person employs a pre-existing quotation in writing or speech, people assign it to him.
10. Host: There are many people who are "quotation superstars": that is, the intellectual world is crawling with their sayings. It becomes very easy for people to take a quotation from a lesson-known personality and assign it to these guys.
The author gives us a number of cases which illustrate each of the above phenomena, with details of how the particular quote travelled through time and space. It is fascinating reading most of the time - the only problem I had was saturation after a period. So I would suggest reading this book in short bursts, and even skipping those parts you find boring.
But I must say, whoever said them, many of these quotes are worth their weight in gold. It brings to mind what Confucius said in the Analects: "It is the word, and not the tongue which utters it, which is important."
(Well, Confucius never said that to my knowledge. I just made it up. An example of "Concoction"!)
March 3, 2017
I like quotes. The wisdom of great writers and thinkers can often serve as time honored lessons about life, people and relationships.
I do not like learning that people I've been quoting did not actually coin the phrases they're famous for saying, but knowing is better than not knowing.
HEMINGWAY DIDN'T SAY THAT is a Snopes for some famous quotes. I found reading it on Kindle to be cumbersome, because of the layout. Quotes had links to the information dispelling the most common origin belief, which were often more than a page so hitting the back button to return to the other quotes often took me to the Kindle home page.
Normally I wouldn't grade down for format, because I doubt Garson O'Toole had the final say, but because these weren't editorial or proofing mistakes but the intended layout, I couldn't rate this well researched, but dry book any higher.
I do not like learning that people I've been quoting did not actually coin the phrases they're famous for saying, but knowing is better than not knowing.
HEMINGWAY DIDN'T SAY THAT is a Snopes for some famous quotes. I found reading it on Kindle to be cumbersome, because of the layout. Quotes had links to the information dispelling the most common origin belief, which were often more than a page so hitting the back button to return to the other quotes often took me to the Kindle home page.
Normally I wouldn't grade down for format, because I doubt Garson O'Toole had the final say, but because these weren't editorial or proofing mistakes but the intended layout, I couldn't rate this well researched, but dry book any higher.
Read
June 12, 2017DNF at 78%
I really tried.
I really tried.
March 26, 2017
I got this for free on my Kindle First program through Amazon. I like using that program to read books I may otherwise not.
This is an easy read, divided into categories like a real quote assigned to the wrong person, a summary of a sentiment, just plain wrong, etc (I'm paraphrasing). This guy does his research and you can tell he loves it, as evidenced by his lengthy citations at the end of each chapter. It's overall really interesting to learn the history of famous quotes, but it's presented in a somewhat dry manner. I saw another reviewer comment how much potential a book like this has, say in the hands of Bill Bryson or someone. Not to say this author doesn't have his moments, because there are some funny anecdotes and witty dry remarks. It's a great reference book and set up perfectly for a digital reference.
Some of the misattributions to quotes were found on Goodreads, fyi...
This is an easy read, divided into categories like a real quote assigned to the wrong person, a summary of a sentiment, just plain wrong, etc (I'm paraphrasing). This guy does his research and you can tell he loves it, as evidenced by his lengthy citations at the end of each chapter. It's overall really interesting to learn the history of famous quotes, but it's presented in a somewhat dry manner. I saw another reviewer comment how much potential a book like this has, say in the hands of Bill Bryson or someone. Not to say this author doesn't have his moments, because there are some funny anecdotes and witty dry remarks. It's a great reference book and set up perfectly for a digital reference.
Some of the misattributions to quotes were found on Goodreads, fyi...
March 24, 2017
I love quotations
This is not a book for a person who just casually likes quotes. You need to want to know the origins, the details, the history of the usage to enjoy the book. The author often gives the earliest usage at the beginning of each chapter, so if you only want to know that you can skip to the next. The research is well documented so you can delve further if you like.
This is not a book for a person who just casually likes quotes. You need to want to know the origins, the details, the history of the usage to enjoy the book. The author often gives the earliest usage at the beginning of each chapter, so if you only want to know that you can skip to the next. The research is well documented so you can delve further if you like.
May 24, 2025
So many of the reviewers seem to be judging this book against what they wanted it to be. I want to read it to judge it on its own merits. I bet that I give it four stars. I already like the website.
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Welp, it is what it is. I carefully skimmed and feel confident to rate. One really does have to care about the research. It's not friendly or witty nor is it a narrative.
Glad I could spend some time with it; glad I'm done and can return it to the library.
---
Welp, it is what it is. I carefully skimmed and feel confident to rate. One really does have to care about the research. It's not friendly or witty nor is it a narrative.
Glad I could spend some time with it; glad I'm done and can return it to the library.
March 2, 2017
College Reference Book
The best thing I can say for this book is that it could be used as a reference book for a VERY boring college course.
The best thing I can say for this book is that it could be used as a reference book for a VERY boring college course.
April 5, 2017
Hey! A free Kindle First book that's not a sappy romance novel!! This book is moderately interesting, but I think part of the problem is although falsely attributed quotes on facebook bother me, I didn't find the chronological excerpting of these quotes as they wound up in their current form very interesting.
Another problem is that many of the initial misattributions are just so clearly WRONG, that it doesn't seem worth the effort to point it out. Two examples from about midway through the book come to mind:
1. "Be Kind. Everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." This quote is apparently often misattributed to Plato. I have not seen it attributed to Plato, but have seen it misattributed to C.S. Lewis before. I almost chuckled when I saw the attribution. Why? The sentiment in this quote just doesn't fit with the person of Plato, nor would it plausibly be said by anyone in the ancient world. Why? Because its such a clearly christian sentiment. It would be like posting the "footprints in the sand" poem and then attributing it to Socrates.
2. "The purpose of life is to discover your gift. The meaning of life is to give your gift away." Apparently attributed to William Shakespeare, and/or Pablo Piccaso. As was the case of the prior example, this one doesn't fit with either of the people who it's attributed to. First off, Shakespeare wrote English well. He didn't write sappy Hallmark card lines like the above 'quote.' Second this quote just stinks of the late 20th century. People didn't talk like this in the past. Probably because it sounds stupid. Anyways, what do you know, when the author traced the quote all the way back to its earliest origins--it originated in 1993.
Anyways, the book goes through a lot more quotes which you've probably seen on facebook, in an artsy font with some pastel picture behind them. It reads like a collection of webarticles bunking and debunking the various attributions of these quotes. As Abraham Lincoln never said: "People who like this sort of thing will find it the sort of thing they like," I do not really like this sort of thing.
Another problem is that many of the initial misattributions are just so clearly WRONG, that it doesn't seem worth the effort to point it out. Two examples from about midway through the book come to mind:
1. "Be Kind. Everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle." This quote is apparently often misattributed to Plato. I have not seen it attributed to Plato, but have seen it misattributed to C.S. Lewis before. I almost chuckled when I saw the attribution. Why? The sentiment in this quote just doesn't fit with the person of Plato, nor would it plausibly be said by anyone in the ancient world. Why? Because its such a clearly christian sentiment. It would be like posting the "footprints in the sand" poem and then attributing it to Socrates.
2. "The purpose of life is to discover your gift. The meaning of life is to give your gift away." Apparently attributed to William Shakespeare, and/or Pablo Piccaso. As was the case of the prior example, this one doesn't fit with either of the people who it's attributed to. First off, Shakespeare wrote English well. He didn't write sappy Hallmark card lines like the above 'quote.' Second this quote just stinks of the late 20th century. People didn't talk like this in the past. Probably because it sounds stupid. Anyways, what do you know, when the author traced the quote all the way back to its earliest origins--it originated in 1993.
Anyways, the book goes through a lot more quotes which you've probably seen on facebook, in an artsy font with some pastel picture behind them. It reads like a collection of webarticles bunking and debunking the various attributions of these quotes. As Abraham Lincoln never said: "People who like this sort of thing will find it the sort of thing they like," I do not really like this sort of thing.
May 23, 2017
Nowadays, quotes attributed to famous persons, have spread far and wide on an everyday basis due to the internet. People attach quotes as a signature to their emails. Others, email a quote everyday to their hundreds of contacts. As a result, all of us get to know wise everyday sayings, aphorisms or quotes by eminent people. But, we hardly pause to think about the origins of these familiar quotations and how correct our assumptions are, regarding the correctness of their attributions. This book’s author, Garson O’Toole, is the creator of the website ‘Quote Investigator’. It investigates the dubious origins of many familiar quotes. In this book, he shows that there is a cacophony of conflicting information online with regard to quotations. There is accurate attributions of quotes but often they are drowned in inaccurate information on the same quotes. Just like fake news today, fake attributions of quotes is also a problem, spreading like a virus. Apart from misattributions of quotes, paraphrasing of the original quotes, making quotes into cultural proverbs etc. are some of the ways a quote morphs in its lifetime. However, by far, the most common ones are misattributions.
In the introduction, the author gives a fascinating overview of what he calls ‘mechanisms of error’ in how the misattributions occur. It happens mainly because quotations are exposed to an evolutionary process. This results in distortion and inaccuracy. Sometimes, an observer, after reading many interviews, speeches and writings of a famous person, condenses the ideas in his own words and attributes them to that person. Though the content may be accurate, we will never find the exact text in the author’s original work. At other times, when a saying is of unknown ascription, someone decides to elevate it to the status of a proverb. Persons with similar names can get quotes wrongly ascribed. In the internet era, pranksters disseminate dubious quotes widely, making them legitimate. Another frequent error occurs when a famous person uses a pre-existing quote of an anonymous individual in his writings or speeches. Over time, this quote gets attributed to the famous person herself. When the life of a real-life person gets dramatized in a film, the screenplay writer often fabricates scenes with dialogues and inner monologues. Because of the success of the film, often this gets elevated to the status of genuine quotes by the famous person.
The book contains about a hundred-odd quotes which are popular. It goes on to investigate their origins and whether the popular attributions are correct or not. The author outlines the research process of how he tracked down their origins and evolution. It is a fascinating, Sherlock Holmesian journey and is in itself an education on how to do research. He shows how he used online databases and Google Books which were originally created for other purposes, in his search. I recognised in the book, some of the favorite quotes I have used, and found that I have misattributed them! I shall give a few popular examples from the book, to whet the appetite of the reader so that it will make her want to read the book.
‘Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration’ is a quote attributed to Thomas Edison. In 1892-93, a prominent lecturer , Kate Sanborn, was first credited with saying that genius is talent, perspiration and inspiration. The first known attribution to Edison happened in 1898, in the Ladies Home Journal, when he was quoted as defining genius recursively as ‘2% genius and 98% hard work’. The author says that the idea of genius as composed of inspiration and perspiration was in circulation already before Edison’s adage came about. Edison can be given credit for the percentage breakdown.
‘640K of computer memory ought to be enough for anyone’ has Bill Gates as the unfortunate author. In Silicon valley, with thousands of Microsoft-haters, this quote has found wide circulation. Poor Bill Gates! Author O’Toole shows that he never said it. In fact, Bill himself has apparently said in his columns that he had said stupid and wrong things in his life but this quote is not one of them. But, in the era of the internet, even he couldn’t escape the sword of fake attribution. Tracking down this quote, O’Toole shows that in April 1985, the magazine Infoworld, made a quote to this effect with Bill Gates as the author, but didn’t provide any reference to authenticate it. Looking through documents of the 1980s, the book says that a mindset of ‘even 128K memory was more than enough ‘ was common at that time and was articulated by authors like Nancy Andrews and Jerry Pournelle in the 1980s.
‘If you love someone, set them free. If they come back, they are yours’ is widely attributed to Richard Bach, the author of the cult novel of the 1970s, ‘Jonathan Livingstone Seagull’. The book says that Bach did not create or use the phrases in the quote! The earliest known version of this saying is in the book ‘I Ain’t Much Baby, But I’m All I Have Got’ by Jess Lair in 1969. However, the book says that the creator of this saying is not known, but Jess Lair started its popularization in one version.
There are many more investigations into famous quotes by Mahatma Gandhi, Charles Darwin, Pablo Picasso, Franz Kafka and others in the book. It is a delight to read. The process of research on the origins and correctness of each of these quotes is itself a pleasure to read. Most of us tend to fall back on Google or Goodreads to pick out quotes and use them. This book shows that it is no guarantee of the authenticity of the quote or its attribution. Since each quote is an independent entity by itself, one can read the book in any order and in any piecemeal way. For those who are intrigued as I am by the book, they can look further into the author’s website which has got many hundreds more of investigations.
A book worth spending time on.
In the introduction, the author gives a fascinating overview of what he calls ‘mechanisms of error’ in how the misattributions occur. It happens mainly because quotations are exposed to an evolutionary process. This results in distortion and inaccuracy. Sometimes, an observer, after reading many interviews, speeches and writings of a famous person, condenses the ideas in his own words and attributes them to that person. Though the content may be accurate, we will never find the exact text in the author’s original work. At other times, when a saying is of unknown ascription, someone decides to elevate it to the status of a proverb. Persons with similar names can get quotes wrongly ascribed. In the internet era, pranksters disseminate dubious quotes widely, making them legitimate. Another frequent error occurs when a famous person uses a pre-existing quote of an anonymous individual in his writings or speeches. Over time, this quote gets attributed to the famous person herself. When the life of a real-life person gets dramatized in a film, the screenplay writer often fabricates scenes with dialogues and inner monologues. Because of the success of the film, often this gets elevated to the status of genuine quotes by the famous person.
The book contains about a hundred-odd quotes which are popular. It goes on to investigate their origins and whether the popular attributions are correct or not. The author outlines the research process of how he tracked down their origins and evolution. It is a fascinating, Sherlock Holmesian journey and is in itself an education on how to do research. He shows how he used online databases and Google Books which were originally created for other purposes, in his search. I recognised in the book, some of the favorite quotes I have used, and found that I have misattributed them! I shall give a few popular examples from the book, to whet the appetite of the reader so that it will make her want to read the book.
‘Genius is 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration’ is a quote attributed to Thomas Edison. In 1892-93, a prominent lecturer , Kate Sanborn, was first credited with saying that genius is talent, perspiration and inspiration. The first known attribution to Edison happened in 1898, in the Ladies Home Journal, when he was quoted as defining genius recursively as ‘2% genius and 98% hard work’. The author says that the idea of genius as composed of inspiration and perspiration was in circulation already before Edison’s adage came about. Edison can be given credit for the percentage breakdown.
‘640K of computer memory ought to be enough for anyone’ has Bill Gates as the unfortunate author. In Silicon valley, with thousands of Microsoft-haters, this quote has found wide circulation. Poor Bill Gates! Author O’Toole shows that he never said it. In fact, Bill himself has apparently said in his columns that he had said stupid and wrong things in his life but this quote is not one of them. But, in the era of the internet, even he couldn’t escape the sword of fake attribution. Tracking down this quote, O’Toole shows that in April 1985, the magazine Infoworld, made a quote to this effect with Bill Gates as the author, but didn’t provide any reference to authenticate it. Looking through documents of the 1980s, the book says that a mindset of ‘even 128K memory was more than enough ‘ was common at that time and was articulated by authors like Nancy Andrews and Jerry Pournelle in the 1980s.
‘If you love someone, set them free. If they come back, they are yours’ is widely attributed to Richard Bach, the author of the cult novel of the 1970s, ‘Jonathan Livingstone Seagull’. The book says that Bach did not create or use the phrases in the quote! The earliest known version of this saying is in the book ‘I Ain’t Much Baby, But I’m All I Have Got’ by Jess Lair in 1969. However, the book says that the creator of this saying is not known, but Jess Lair started its popularization in one version.
There are many more investigations into famous quotes by Mahatma Gandhi, Charles Darwin, Pablo Picasso, Franz Kafka and others in the book. It is a delight to read. The process of research on the origins and correctness of each of these quotes is itself a pleasure to read. Most of us tend to fall back on Google or Goodreads to pick out quotes and use them. This book shows that it is no guarantee of the authenticity of the quote or its attribution. Since each quote is an independent entity by itself, one can read the book in any order and in any piecemeal way. For those who are intrigued as I am by the book, they can look further into the author’s website which has got many hundreds more of investigations.
A book worth spending time on.
Read
April 23, 2022Bu kitabı Sevgili Handan’ın bloğunda görmüştüm. Fuarda beş liraya bulunca hemen aldım. Yazar, internet sitesinde ünlü özdeyişlerin kökenlerinin izini sürüyormuş. Hani şu uzun zamandır defalarca duyduğumuz ama aslında ilk olarak kimin söylediğini bilmediğimiz sözler. İşte bu kitapta o sözlerden bazılarının tarihçesini araştırmış. Alıntılardan hangi sözler olduğuna bakabilirsiniz.
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August 2, 2017
2.5 stars
I don't really know what I was expecting from this book, but what I got definitely wasn't close to it.
It was clear that O'Toole did his research when it came to the quotes that were presented in this book. But there were times where it felt like it just dragged on. And for the most part, it was just boring. It was kind of interesting to read about the history of each quote, but overall, it wasn't that enjoyable or anything that I'll remember any time soon.
I don't really know what I was expecting from this book, but what I got definitely wasn't close to it.
It was clear that O'Toole did his research when it came to the quotes that were presented in this book. But there were times where it felt like it just dragged on. And for the most part, it was just boring. It was kind of interesting to read about the history of each quote, but overall, it wasn't that enjoyable or anything that I'll remember any time soon.
March 6, 2022
Dull and disappointing, unfortunately
December 18, 2019
Mildly interesting.
March 9, 2017
What a disappointment this book was, although since I got it from Amazon for free as part of my Prime membership, I shouldn't complain too much. As a librarian, I love the art of research, especially as it pertains to language. In this collection, the author sets the stage by explaining how he came to track down the derivation of familiar quotes, often debunking accepted wisdom, occasionally unable to get a definitive answer. I started the first case “Good artists copy; great artists steal.” with high hopes for an entertaining search. The steps were interesting but were told with little drama, humor or personality of the author at all. The conclusion was almost an anticlimax.
And thus the pattern was established for the entire book. I kept thinking what Bill Bryson could have done with this assignment.
Fortunately there is an index by quotation so I can use this as a reference when seeking the real source of famous quotes. That's got to be worth something.
And thus the pattern was established for the entire book. I kept thinking what Bill Bryson could have done with this assignment.
Fortunately there is an index by quotation so I can use this as a reference when seeking the real source of famous quotes. That's got to be worth something.
March 2, 2017
I'm sorry I picked this book
The title is extremely misleading. I thought I would be reading about quotes that are attributed to Hemingway.
This book is filled with "verbal diarrhea" and each misattributed quote is actually more like an APA style research paper. And within each essay there are other quotes people have said that honestly I don't give two shits about.
This book would be much better as a supplement material for a literary major.
If you are looking some research mater, then this is your book. If you are wanting to read this book for pleasure, run as fast and as far away as you can!
As for the author, I recommend that you read the "Uncle John's Bathroom Reader" series to use as a guide before you even attempt to write another book...
The title is extremely misleading. I thought I would be reading about quotes that are attributed to Hemingway.
This book is filled with "verbal diarrhea" and each misattributed quote is actually more like an APA style research paper. And within each essay there are other quotes people have said that honestly I don't give two shits about.
This book would be much better as a supplement material for a literary major.
If you are looking some research mater, then this is your book. If you are wanting to read this book for pleasure, run as fast and as far away as you can!
As for the author, I recommend that you read the "Uncle John's Bathroom Reader" series to use as a guide before you even attempt to write another book...
keep-in-mind
March 1, 2017Added 3/1/17. (Expected publication: April 1st 2017 by Little A)
I downloaded this Kindle edition FREE, as a "Kindle First" from Amazon. (Amazon Prime members can choose one featured book for FREE every month.)
Since one of my hobbies is collecting quotations, I thought this would be an important addition to my Kindle collection.
I downloaded this Kindle edition FREE, as a "Kindle First" from Amazon. (Amazon Prime members can choose one featured book for FREE every month.)
Since one of my hobbies is collecting quotations, I thought this would be an important addition to my Kindle collection.
June 15, 2017
Amazon Prime selection. I got this mostly for my wife, but I couldn't let it sit in my carousel without reading it myself. I enjoyed it, but could only manage small doses of it. A little went a long way. We both enjoy language, especially the quirkier aspects of English. This appealed to us both, and I was introduced to a whole realm of a study and conjecture. I suppose I intuitively knew people study this sort of thing, but this was my first foray into it. I enjoyed the brief introduction to various means of (mis)appropriation.
Read
February 21, 2023Does anyone actually read this from front to back? Were we supposed to?
It's a great premise....written like a textbook. I feel like a little humor/personality/ wit/etc. would have gone a long way in making this readable; instead it's factual to the point of being dry.
It is very thorough, I'll give the author that. The index allows this to be used as more of a reference book, which is how i read it.
Overall: Great if you want to validate the origin of a quote; not so great as an engaging read.
It's a great premise....written like a textbook. I feel like a little humor/personality/ wit/etc. would have gone a long way in making this readable; instead it's factual to the point of being dry.
It is very thorough, I'll give the author that. The index allows this to be used as more of a reference book, which is how i read it.
Overall: Great if you want to validate the origin of a quote; not so great as an engaging read.
October 10, 2017
I must not have read the jacket copy closely enough, because I wanted this to be far more narrative than it is. There is almost no narrative whatsoever. But in Kindle format, it's very well put together in that you can choose any given popular quote, move immediately to it and see all the sources used by O'Toole to put together its provenance. Most quotes aren't really what we think they are and most of the people we thought were not the ones who said them. Strange and interesting.
June 16, 2017
For the most part a pretty boring book. Perhaps interesting for some, but certainly not me. I learned nothing of any importance and there was little of interest to want to seek any further knowledge regarding any of the subjects investigated. All in all a disappointment.
November 12, 2017
A little bit interesting
This was somewhat interesting at times. I had never heard of some of the quotes, so the backstories were not fun. I would not recommend this.
This was somewhat interesting at times. I had never heard of some of the quotes, so the backstories were not fun. I would not recommend this.
February 18, 2022
Interesting.
June 16, 2017
The research conducted is impressively extensive, but the book is very boring, hard to finish.
On a side note, I think it would make better contributions by closing each chapter with the original quote, citing the original author.
On a side note, I think it would make better contributions by closing each chapter with the original quote, citing the original author.
March 8, 2017
Not quiet as much fun as I thought it would be, but it is educational. The author must have done some heavy duty research for this book. I have never seen so many reference notes in one book (embedded links in the Kindle edition).
March 26, 2018
An interesting book that takes a hard look at some of the more popular misattributed maxims of our day, the Quote Investigator is on the case in Hemingway Didn't Say That. Garson O'Toole breaks down the origins of the statement, the possible places in publication and rhetorical execution where the quote became changed or reattributed, and then presents the findings in a quick and perfectly referenced minimalist format. I got this book as a Kindle First selection. While I found it interesting and was happy to indulge in it for free, and I would certainly call myself a geek for intensive research-based work such as this, I wouldn't say I would have paid for the book and likely will not open it again save for an obsessive trivia-based dip in the future. Truth is, the book isn't one you would read from cover to cover – it is more like an almanac that is best digested in small nibbles. As long as you know that going into it and have patience to revisit it for a quick less-than-five-minute read here and there, you will enjoy this book. It is factual and dry at times, but I found the intellectual nuggets to be worth the pay off when I came across them. I don't think many readers would share the same enthusiasm I do, however.
May 16, 2021
Never believe what you read...sometimes. When it comes to quotations, who said it is often dubious at best. Popular sayings are constantly being repeated, misattributed, stolen, and mistakenly credited. At first, the investigation sounds intriguing and exciting. Let’s find the truth behind these quotes! But in practice, the result is kind of underwhelming, with the truth most often being, “we don’t really know who said this first; we just know who didn’t say this first.” The book started strong, laying out all the wrong ways that quotes are spread. And then it becomes a case by case study of each quote, proverb, or adage (or whatever you favorite term is) under the relevant category. Everything was well-researched and thorough, but it all felt a bit dry to read. I had never heard of some of the quotes, so I just wasn’t very interested. Some studies were just instances of when and where the quote appeared, with very little analysis until the end, which in some cases just wasn’t very deep. Some better formatting could’ve drastically improved this book. Instead, it’s like reading a list. I learned a few things, but I never felt excited or inspired by what I was reading.
October 29, 2018
Interesting at first, especially in a philosophical sense of what is fact v truth and how do both seem to evolve. Some of the examples were quite interesting. Overall, however, there were too many examples, and the entries were overly dry and serious. Trimming down by twenty entries or so, or adding a little more levity, or both, would have really helped this otherwise intriguing premise.
July 20, 2019
算是科普書嗎？內容與想象中不太一樣，不過還是比較有趣的。對於諸多名言追根溯源尋找最初的出處，比較讓我吃驚的地方是有些被搞錯作者的句子竟然真的單純是因為看錯人名……
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