“Strange but true” — there are quotes by Lord Byron you probably didn’t know you knew…

Although Lord Byron (George Gordon Noel Byron) is one of the most famous of all English poets, few of us can recite a lot of lines from his poems. Thanks…

“Greed is good!” – the famous movie misquote and it’s real life inspiration

On December 11, 1987 Oliver Stone’s film Wall Street was released in U.S. theaters. The movie stars Michael Douglas as Gordon Gekko, a mega-rich, ethically-challenged Wall Street investor who specializes…

“He who destroys a good book kills reason itself.”

In the 1630s, England’s infamous “Star Chamber” (sort of a politically-oriented version of the Spanish Inquisition) banned the printing or sale of “any seditious, scismaticall, or offensive Bookes or Pamphlets.”…

“Spare the rod and spoil the child”

It’s not surprising that many people think the quote “Spare the rod and spoil the child” comes from the Bible. There are at least five verses in the Bible’s Book…

“She was the people’s princess” (but not the first) . . .

Bring me the head of John the Baptist – and Alfredo Garcia…

Director Sam Peckinpah’s 1974 film Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, starring Warren Oates, is one of my favorite movies from the Seventies.   The film’s title comes from a…

“Yonder lies the castle of my fodder.” The famous movie “quote” that Tony Curtis didn’t say…

When actor Tony Curtis died at age 85, in September 2010, many obituaries and tributes mentioned what is widely believed to be one of his most famous movie lines. In…

“You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.”

July 9th is the anniversary of one of the most famous political speeches in history, the “Cross of Gold Speech” by William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925). Bryan, one of America’s most…

“They may take our lives, but they’ll never take our freedom!”

On May 24, 1995, five days after its official premiere in Los Angeles, Braveheart was released to theaters nationwide in the USA. The movie stars Mel Gibson as the 13th…

“Never play cards with a man called Doc” — and other advice from Nelson Algren…

The copyright record for the novel A Walk on the Wild Side by Nelson Algren says it was copyrighted on May 18, 1956. Traditionally, the copyright date is also a…