Quotations Weblog

The Utah Museum of Fine Art has an exhibit right now called, Frida Kahlo through the Lens of Nickolas Muray. For the story of Nickolas Muray and Frida Kahlo, see our art museum review on Starling Travel:

• Starling Travel » Frida Kahlo through the Lens of Nickolas Muray Exhibit

Because of their torrid love affair, we have many of Frida’s writings in the form of letters to Nickolas. If he had loved her less, we might have lost the thoughts that she wrote so long ago. As I walked through the exhibit, I was more drawn to her letters to Nickolas than his photographs of her. It was obvious that she “dressed up” for his photographs, but those letters were her heart open to him with raw honesty.

Click here for a detailed biography of Frida Kahlo:

• Frida Kahlo – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For all of Frida Kahlo’s quotations, click here:

• Frida Kahlo Quotes – The Quotations Page

In 1973, Time Magazine named Flip Wilson as television’s first black superstar. I was four years old. From my point of view, I didn’t really understand that Flip Wilson was a black man. He seemed like a funny guy and he made my parents laugh when they watched Laugh-In.

He later got his own show, The Flip Wilson Show. I remember my parents being really excited that he got his own show and we sat down to watch it each week. Now, I can see that he won a Golden Globe for that show. Back then, I paid no attention to accolades and awards. I just watched what my parents thought was funny.

I barely remember seeing Flip Wilson say any of his funny tag lines, but they are so ingrained into our language now that many of you probably quote him every day and didn’t even know it.

As a child, I remember quoting Flip Wilson whenever I got into trouble, “The devil made me do it.” As long as the transgression wasn’t too foul, it was always enough to get me out of trouble. The adults would laugh and I would try to blink my eyes like Flip Wilson did. I know now that he was performing the universal “innocence” look with those eye blinks, but all I was doing was copying a great man.

To learn more about Flip Wilson:

• Flip Wilson Biography – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

• Flip Wilson Biography & Filmography – IMDB

• Flip Wilson – Museum of Broadcast Communications

See all of Flip Wilson’s Quotations Here:

• Flip Wilson Quotes – The Quotations Page

Only one of the people we list quotations from has the distinction of being a scientist, writer, inventor, newspaper editor, college founder, and one of the founding fathers of the United States.

Yesterday was the 300th anniversary of Benjamin Franklin’s birth, and a museum exhibit is celebrating this with information about his life. There’s also an online exhibit. Wikipedia also has a good biography of Franklin, or you can read his autobiography.

• More Benjamin Franklin quotations

On this day in 1964, Edith Sitwell died at the age of 77. She had been “an unpopular electric eel” among the boring pool of “catfish” poets. Wikipedia has a biography of her life.

• Wikipedia – Edith Sitwell

Some of my favorite quotes are from Edith Sitwell:

And of course, the inventive self-classification:

You can read all of Edith Sitwell’s Quotations here:

• Edith Sitwell Quotes – The Quotations Page

I knew George Burn’s schtick before I knew who he was. I can only assume that my grandpa loved George Burn’s sense of humor because he stole his jokes all the time. He would say to my grandma at night,

“Say goodnight, Grandma,” and she would reply,

“Goodnight, Grandma.”

It took me years to realize that my grandparents weren’t the witty folks I thought they were. They were just repeating the George and Gracie joke from their youth.

For a complete biography, filmography and lists of radio and television series, see the Wikipedia article listed below.

• Wikipedia – George Burns

Here are some of my favorite quotations from George Burns:

Click here to read all of his quotations:

• George Burns Quotes – The Quotations Page