“Great minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, and small minds discuss people” is an old saying. New York-based author Fran Lebowitz changed this saying a bit in Social Studies (1977):
“Great people talk about ideas, average people talk about things, and small people talk about wine.”
The quotation has been frequently cited.
Wikipedia: Fran Lebowitz
Frances Ann “Fran” Lebowitz (born October 27, 1950) is an American author and public speaker. Lebowitz is known for her sardonic social commentary on American life as filtered through her New York City sensibilities. Some reviewers have called her a modern-day Dorothy Parker.
OCLC WorldCat record
Social studies
Author: Fran Lebowitz
Publisher: New York Random House ©1977.
Edition/Format: Print book : English
4 October 1981, Sunday Herald-Leader (Lexington, KY), “Qoute of the Day,” pg. D10, col. 5:
Great people talk about ideas, average people talk about things, and small people talk about wine.
—Fran Lebowitz
27 December 1981, Dallas (TX) Morning News, “Some witty words on modern life” by Karen Milan, pg. 5G, col. 1:
Social Studies is divided into sections on People (the best of the lot), Things, Places and Ideas. Great people, she says, talk about ideas, average people talk about things, and small people talk about wine.
Google Books
The Quotable Wine Lover
Edited by Kate Fiduccia
New York, NY: Sterling Publishing Company, Inc.
2004
Pg 6:
Great people talk about ideas, average people talk about things, and small people talk about wine.
FRAN LEBOWITZ
Google Books
A Speaker’s Treasury of Quotations:
Maxims, Witticisms and Quips for Speeches and Presentations
Compiled by Michael C. Thomsett and Linda Rose Thomsett
Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company, Inc.
2009
Pg. 59:
Great people talk about ideas, average people talk about things, and small people talk about wine.—Fran Lebowitz, Social Studies, 1977
Google Books
The Quotable Drunkard:
Words of Wit, Wisdom, and Philosophy From the Bottom of the Glass
By Steven Kates
Avon, MA: Adams Media
2011
Pg. 49:
Great people talk about ideas, average people talk about things, and small people talk about wine.” —FRAN LEBOWITZ
Twitter
Jewish Comedians
@JewishComedians
Fran Lebowitz: Great people talk about ideas, average people talk about things, and small people talk about wine. | #Quotes
2:53 PM - 30 Nov 2015
Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.
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Above, Big Apple Corner at 54th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Google Maps. Stolen and missing, 2021-2024.
Above, John J. Fitz Gerald, from the Aug. 15, 1931, Binghamton (NY) Press, pg. 14.
Listen to Robert Emmerich introduce "The Big Apple," a hit song from 1937. Music written by Bob and performed by Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven with Bob on piano. Lyrics written by Buddy Bernier and sung by Edythe Wright. Audio provided by Dorothy Emmerich.
Also listen to a 1937 "The Big Apple" song by Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra. See a 1929 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald and a 1931 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald.
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