The Big Apple
About Archives Categories Index Search
About Archives Categories Index Search

November 8, 2025
Work/Businesses

“Economy so bad u might as well follow your dreams and see what happens”

"Follow your dreams" is popular advice, but many people cannot afford to leave a job that pays the bills to, for example, travel the world or pursue an artistic endeavor. However, in a…

November 8, 2025
Work/Businesses

“Economy so bad you might as well follow your dreams and see what happens”

"Follow your dreams" is popular advice, but many people cannot afford to leave a job that pays the bills to, for example, travel the world or pursue an artistic endeavor. However, in a…

April 28, 2016
Media/Newspapers/Magazines/Internet

“Editorial writers enter the battlefield after the war and shoot the wounded”

American journalist Murray Kempton (1917-1997) is credited for writing that "a critic (or an editorial writer) is one who walks down the hill, after the battle is over, and shoots the…

August 3, 2012
Media/Newspapers/Magazines/Internet

“Editorials like skirts—long enough to cover everything, short enough to be interesting”

The formula for good speaking and good writing has been compared to a woman's dress -- "it should be long enough to cover the subject, but short enough to be interesting." The saying…

June 13, 2013
Media/Newspapers/Magazines/Internet

“Editors choose their stories, but sometimes stories choose their editors”

Author Salmon Rushdie said in 1990, "Books choose their authors; the act of creation is not entirely a rational and conscious one." The quotation has been frequently cited in books and in…

April 5, 2021
Education/Schools

“Educated people are hotter because they have more degrees”

"'Educated people are hotter because they have more degrees' True story ρε!!!Είμαστε!!!" is a "degrees" pun that was posted on Twitter by Lna Spanious ♔ on…

December 18, 2012
Education/Schools

“Education is a better safeguard of liberty than a standing army”

“Education is a better safeguard for liberty than a standing army. If we retrench the wages of the schoolmaster, we must raise the wages of the recruiting sergeant," said Massachusetts…

July 18, 2016
Education/Schools

“Education is important, but [X] is importanter”

"Education is important, but [X] is importanter" is a jocular line that has been printed on T-shirts, posters and ecards. "Education is important, but big biceps are…

July 18, 2016
Exercise/Running/Health Clubs

“Education is important, but big biceps are importanter”

"Education is important, but [X] is importanter" is a jocular line that has been printed on T-shirts, posters and ecards. "Education is important, but big biceps are…

June 15, 2015
Education/Schools

“Education is no substitute for intelligence”

American science fiction writer Frank Herbert (1920-1986) wrote in Chapterhouse: Dune (1985): "Education is no substitute for intelligence. That elusive quality is defined only in part by…

July 6, 2019
Education/Schools

“Education is not the answer to the question. Education is the means to the answer to all questions”

"Education is not the answer to the question. Education is the means to the answer to all questions" is a saying that has been printed on several images. "Someone once said,…

December 5, 2013
Education/Schools

“Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world”

Nelson Mandela (1918-2013) often stressed the importance of education. "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world" is a popular Mandela quote that was…

October 9, 2012
Education/Schools

“Education is the path from cocky ignorance to miserable uncertainty”

"Education is the path from cocky ignorance to miserable uncertainty" has been credited to Mark Twain (the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemons, 1835-1910), but there's no evidence…

October 9, 2013
Education/Schools

“Education is useless without the Bible”

Entry in progress -- B.P. Wikipedia: Noah WebsterNoah Webster, Jr. (October 16, 1758 – May 28, 1843), was a lexicographer, textbook pioneer, English-language spelling reformer, political writer,…

September 29, 2020
Education/Schools

“Education pays off in the long run” (marathoner joke)

The expression "in the long run" means "over a long period of time" and does not usually refer to long runs, but there are jokes. A marathoner riddle is: Q: Why does someone who…

August 24, 2013
Education/Schools

“Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one”

"Education's purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one" is a popular quotation that has been cited in print since at least 1988, when it was credited to magazine publisher…

October 25, 2012
Work/Businesses

“Efficiency is a highly developed form of laziness”

"Efficiency is a highly developed form of laziness" is a saying that has been printed on many gift items, such as T-shirts, hats and buttons. The lazy person wants to be efficient so he…

January 13, 2018
Work/Businesses

“Efficiency is clever laziness”

"Efficiency is clever laziness" is another form of the old saying, "Choose a lazy person to do a hard job because that person will find an easy way to do it." The saying…

August 18, 2009
Government/Law/Military/Religion /Health

“Efficiency of the Post Office, compassion of the IRS” (government-run healthcare)

National health care ("government-run health care") became a popular political topic in the early 1990s ("Hillarycare," after First Lady Hillary Clinton) and in 2009…

December 19, 2021
Food/Drink

“Egg nog implies the existence of chicken nog”

There is "eggnog," so some people assume that there should be "chickennog" and "spermnog." "Egg nog implies the existence of chicken nog" was posted on…

First
Previous
288 289 290 291 292
Next
Last

About the Website and Editor

BARRY POPIK is a contributor to the Oxford English Dictionary, Dictionary of American Regional English, Historical Dictionary of American Slang, Yale Book of Quotations and Dictionary of Modern Proverbs. Since 1990 he has also been a regular contributor to Gerald Cohen's Comments on Etymology.

Read more About the Website and Editor
About
Privacy Policy
RSS

© 2026 Barry Popik. All rights reserved.