Three famous quotations are linked to the assassination and death of President Abraham Lincoln. Many history and quotation books say that after John Wilkes Booth shot Lincoln on April 14,…
The awful origin of “The pen is mightier than the sword.”
On March 7, 1839 the play Richelieu: or, the Conspiracy, by the British politician and author, Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, premiered at the Covent Garden Theatre in London. Few people today…
The 1941 New Yorker cartoon that created the expression “Back to the old drawing board!”
Drawing boards have been used by engineers and architects for more than two centuries. But the saying “back to the old drawing board” is more recent and can actually be…
“Workers of the World, Unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains!”
You can find many different lists of “books that changed the world” on the Internet. Those lists vary considerably. But there are some books that show up on almost all…
“All the news that’s fit to print.”
As noted by many sources, “All the news that’s fit to print” — the famous slogan of The New York Times — is linked to the date February 10, 1897.…
“J’Accuse!” (“I Accuse!”)
On January 13, 1898, the front page of the French newspaper L’Aurore featured a scathing letter about the “Dreyfus Affair” written by popular author Émile Zola and addressed to the…
“We don’t need no stinking badges” — origins, uses & variations…
THE ORIGINAL 1948 MOVIE LINES: “Badges? We ain’t got no badges! We don’t need no badges! I don’t have to show you any stinking badges!” Alfonso Bedoya, as the Mexican…
Dr. Mardy Grothe’s new GreatOpeningLines.com website
On January 1, 2022, Dr. Mardy Grothe launched an amazing new online quotation website — GreatOpeningLines.com. As Grothe explains on the site’s home page, GreatOpeningLines.com is “the first website devoted…
“These are the times that try men’s souls…”
During the Revolutionary War, getting soldiers to stay in the Continental Army was one of the biggest problems facing the American commander in chief, General George Washington. Many American soldiers…