Your inquiry from June 12 inspired a Quote Investigator article: @vils.bsky.social ‬ Russia is never as strong as she looks; Russia is never as weak as she looks. Who crafted this: Churchill? Bismarck? Talleyrand? Metternich? Pilsudski? Anonymous? quoteinvestigator.com/2026/06/20/r...

Russia is never as strong as she looks; Russia is never as weak as she looks. Who crafted this statement: Winston Churchill? Otto von Bismarck? Charles de Talleyrand? Klemens von Metternich? Jozef Pilsudski? Anonymous? quoteinvestigator.com/2026/06/20/r...

I'd been wondering about the neo-proverb "Punks are good people pretending to be bad; hippies are bad people pretending to be good", so I punted it over to @quoteinvestigator.com to research. It does seem genuinely new, but no specific origin. Anyone know more? quoteinvestigator.com/2026/06/18/p...

Quote Origin: Punks Are Basically Nice People Pretending To Be Mean, Whereas Hippies Are Mean People Pretending To Be Nice How old is this saying? Who created it? Gordon Edgar? John Ross Bowie? Anonymous? quoteinvestigator.com/2026/06/18/p...

Your Jun 14 discussion inspired creation of Quote Investigator article: We take the stars from heaven, the red from our mother country, separating it by white stripes quoteinvestigator.com/2026/06/16/s... @fakehistoryhunter.net clgood.bsky.social @jrtonca.bsky.social @barthsnotes.bsky.social

Did George Washington say the following about the U.S. flag? We take the stars from heaven, the red from our mother country, separating it by white stripes, thus showing that we have separated from her quoteinvestigator.com/2026/06/16/s...

Preliminary analysis. Theodore Roosevelt attribution unsupported. Earliest match in poem by Ken Harris on Feb 19, 1972 in Springfield Daily News of Ohio @timmarchman.bsky.social @bjkeefe.bsky.social

"But don't quote me." John Bartlett 14 Jun 1820🎂 #BookSky📘 @quoteinvestigator.com

A computer is a machine to turn electricity into frustration.

Bill Mullins is here! A regular contributor to the OED and to several of my projects. Show him the love!

I love this website 🥲

Your discussion thread from June 9 inspired the creation of a Quote Investigator article: A mathematician is a machine which turns coffee into theorems quoteinvestigator.com/2026/06/13/m... @clgood.bsky.social @protik.bsky.social @ennui.org ‬

Who made these remarks? A mathematician is a machine which turns coffee into theorems A programmer is a machine for converting coffee into code A writer is a device for turning coffee into prose quoteinvestigator.com/2026/06/13/m...

I always thought this was Hugo, and I'm thrilled to not have to remember it differently 😉

Did literary titan Victor Hugo say: The theater is not the realm of the real: there are cardboard trees, … glass diamonds, tinsel gold, … The theater is the realm of the true: there are human hearts on the stage, … human hearts in the auditorium. quoteinvestigator.com/2026/06/11/t...

Did fashion maven Coco Chanel present the following fashion guideline emphasizing simplicity? One always begins by making dream dresses. Then one has to take away something. Always to take off, never to add. quoteinvestigator.com/2023/02/02/j... This is an updated Quote Investigator article

The @quoteinvestigator.com about that supposed Twain quote. quoteinvestigator.com/2012/12/11/c...

Did super-investor Warren Buffett coin the following saying? It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it quoteinvestigator.com/2026/06/07/b...

The QI article inspired by your request from August 2024 has been updated with a 1905 precursor citation @chronicleflask.katday.com Quip Origin: In Ancient Times Cats Were Worshipped As Gods; They Have Not Forgotten This quoteinvestigator.com/2024/08/11/c... Did Terry Pratchett craft this quip?

oh my god, this was 15 years ago, that post on Twitter and it's been around the world and back

And now I'll go & watch the stunningly talented & gorgeous Anne Bancroft (w/ the rest of the stellar cast) in "The Miracle Worker." (streaming for free on Tubi 😉)

Hellen Keller presented a remarkable description of the tumultuous changes to her inner life: Before my teacher came to me, I did not know that I am. I lived in a world that was a no-world. quoteinvestigator.com/2026/06/01/n...

A science fiction author presented a radical opinion about machine intelligence when he said the following. Who was it? We should regard it as a privilege to be stepping stones to higher things quoteinvestigator.com/2026/05/29/s...

Before you speak, listen. Before you write, think. Before you spend, earn. Before you invest, investigate. Is the advice above really from William Shakespeare or motivational author William Arthur Ward? quoteinvestigator.com/2026/05/26/s...

For ’twas not into my ear you whispered but into my heart. ’Twas not my lips you kissed, but my soul. Did a famous actress and singer from the Golden Age of Hollywood write the lines above? quoteinvestigator.com/2026/05/23/l...

In physics, almost everything is already discovered, and all that remains is to fill a few unimportant holes Was physicist Max Planck given this discouraging advice when he was a student in the 1870s? quoteinvestigator.com/2026/05/20/p...

The following is credited to a famous comedian and concert pianist. Who said it? Laughter is the shortest distance between two people quoteinvestigator.com/2026/05/17/l...

Your request of May 4, 2026, inspired the creation of a Quote Investigator article: Do not confine your children to your own learning, for they were born in another time. quoteinvestigator.com/2026/05/13/c... @clgood.bsky.social

Do not confine your children to your own learning, for they were born in another time. What is the provenance of the saying above: Rabindranath Tagore? Rabbinic Saying? Arabic Proverb? Anonymous? quoteinvestigator.com/2026/05/13/c...

“Oh, sometimes I sit and think, and then again I just sit.” Popular wisdom says this is from Winnie-the-Pooh, but not so. Originally said by a Maine fisherman in 1905, then turned into a Punch cartoon in 1906 with "sit" changed to the more colloquial "sits". quoteinvestigator.com/2018/08/29/s...

Nobody notices when things go right Who formulated the adage above and gave a voice to beleaguered workers everywhere: M. Zimmerman? Paul Dickson? Allan L. Otten? Bob Garing? Futurama? Anonymous? quoteinvestigator.com/2026/05/09/n...

Your discussion thread from May 14, 2026, inspired the creation of a QI article: It was worse than a crime; it was a blunder quoteinvestigator.com/2026/05/06/c... @thurberteam.bsky.social @rajakorman.bsky.social

It was worse than a crime; it was a blunder Who originated the remark above: Talleyrand? Joseph Fouché? Antoine Boulay de la Meurthe? Napoleon Bonaparte? Germaine de Staël? Emmanuel Comte de Las Cases? Walter Scott? Ralph Waldo Emerson? quoteinvestigator.com/2026/05/06/c...

Quote Investigator (Garson O’Toole) attributes it to Raymond Chandler. It was commentary on how pulp stories were written. "When in doubt have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand." From "The Simple Art of Murder", the April 1950 version. quoteinvestigator.com/2014/03/31/g...

Encántame esta frase pero gústame aínda máis todo o proceso que levou a ela quoteinvestigator.com/2016/10/18/f...

He does! As we can see here on my pics from Paris, he WALKS which is next to cycling and public transport certainly the most intelligent mobility behavior one can have in times of climate crisis!

A quote all the leaders could use today! 🙌🏼

Which actor said the following? What makes Superman a hero is not that he has power, but that he has the wisdom and the maturity to use the power wisely quoteinvestigator.com/2026/05/02/h...

Was the following said by German theoretical physicist Max Planck, U.S. self-help author Wayne Dyer, or QI while inebriated? Change the way you look at things, and the things you look at change quoteinvestigator.com/2026/04/30/c...

My gosh, I'm in such elegant company(!).

Oh, how lovely! Thank you! ❗️

@bcdreyer.social Your advice is mentioned in the latest Quote Investigator article. Thanks for writing a wonderful book about language bsky.app/profile/quot...

That great pleasure of nervously reading a book by a friend and discovering that it's absolutely fantastic.

By the way, the whole of Mencken's "The American Language" is online, so judge for yourself! Jump to a random section and read. www.gutenberg.org/files/43376/...

I think I remember first seeing this rule under @johnemcintyre.bsky.social's name. It has definitely shamed me out of an exclamation when writing for publication (though I use them to lighten email/instant messages...)

Which literary stylist presented this guideline? Every writer has a lifetime ration of three exclamation points William Maxwell? Annabel Davis-Goff? Elmore Leonard? Helen Dudar? Benjamin Dreyer? William Safire? F. Scott Fitzgerald? Anonymous? quoteinvestigator.com/2026/04/27/l...

Which angry unbeliever crafted the following: The only excuse for God is that he does not exist Friedrich Nietzsche? Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle)? Albert Camus? Anonymous? quoteinvestigator.com/2026/04/23/g...

I was thinking maybe the early Borscht Belt, or even a few years prior (time to percolate through the populace), but that's just a wild guess.

How old is this family of jokes? "Waiter, do you serve shrimps here?" "Sure. We don’t care how tall you are. Sit down." "Do you serve crabs?" "Yes, we treat all customers alike.” "Do you serve lobsters here?” “Yes, we serve anyone." quoteinvestigator.com/2026/04/21/s...

Also Catch-22 by Joseph Heller