There’s a lot to be said for the old adage, “You can fool all of the Buzzkillers some of the time, and some of the Buzzkillers all of the time, but you cannot fool all Buzzkillers all of the time.” You Buzzkillers are just too intelligent and thoughtful to be taken in by snake-oil salesmen…

Ah the burdens of celebrity are mighty, especially when you’re a famous intellectual. Of course, I’m referring to myself, Buzzkillers, but other brainiacs have suffered before me. Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis and one of the most famous scientists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, has been heavily burdened with a lot…

Lots of people are credited with coining the great phrase, “well-behaved women rarely make history.” They include Marilyn Monroe, Gloria Steinem, Eleanor Roosevelt, Anne Boleyn, and our own Aunt Ginger from the Buzzkill Institute. Given time, any powerful woman with backbone and nerve will get credit for this phrase and sentiment. It’s a great quote,…

Valentine’s Day is here again, Buzzkillers, and you can be certain that we’re depleting the Buzzkill bank account at a rapid clip so that we can give Lady Buzzkill all the best tokens of love and affection befitting her rank and station. And it’s always around this time of year that people ask me about…

Buzzkilling isn’t everything, it’s the only thing. That’s the motivational quote that keeps my eyes on the prize, Buzzkillers. How about that? Two cliches within the first minute! That’s the kind of winning attitude that’s made me the best historian on the interwebs! It also reminds me of the legendary American football coach, Vince Lombardi,…

The Churchill “quote” about fighting for the arts seems to be enjoying a revival in interest these days. Many Buzzkillers have have sent it to me over Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Here’s the standard version: At the height of World War II, the British people and British government finances were stretched to the limit. A…

All too often, researching the origins of well-known quotes leads to a kind of dead end. Famous people are credited with expressions and sayings that were in common use during their time, and those quotes are only attached to, for instance, Churchill or Gandhi, by later generations of admirers. Half the time, the humorous ones…

Patrick Henry is one of the great early American heroes. In 1773, Henry, along with Thomas Jefferson and Richard Henry Lee, convinced their fellow Virginians to join with the other colonies in opposing British rule. The most famous thing he did, however, and the thing which has passed down through generations of American history books,…

Today we’re going to look at one of the most widely-known and widely-publicized quotes in modern times. As the spiritual and political leader of Indian independence, Mohandas K. Gandhi is one of the most admired people in the world history. Next to Winston Churchill, Gandhi is perhaps the most quoted. And, the most misquoted. In…

Welcome to our first episode of Quote or No Quote, Buzzkillers. In these shows, we’ll check into well-known, well-worn, and worn-out quotes that supposedly originated from the brains and mouths of famous historical figures. Too often, historical (and mortal) humans are turned into prophets or demi-gods by generations of us repeating their quotes as if…