Chapter & Verse

Correspondence on not-so-famous lost words

Carol Ochs seeks a citation for “All science, all religion began with the innovator, the nonconformist, the heretic.” She writes, “In the 1950s, it was on the front cover of the Sunday New York Times Book Review with a photo of a sculpture of a hand reaching up.”

Thomas Burrows hopes, after a half-century of searching, that someone can provide him with the source of the following assertion, delivered by Professor Frank Moore Cross during an elementary Hebrew course: “It was a saying of the ancient rabbis that you may as well learn Hebrew now because you will need it in the world to come.”

George Bason wishes to know who first declared, “Lazy people take the most pains,” and what he or she meant by it.

More queries from the archives:

“Words are walls between us / Difficult to scale— / Guardians of self / That make a jail.”

“Elephants coming two by two each as big as a launch in tow…”

“Memory is an old woman who saves dirty rags and throws away pearls and diamonds.”

“Admit impediments” (September-October). Thomas Ehrlich was the first to identify this quotation from the sonnet “Admit impediments” written by Norma (Holzman) Farber, A.M. ’32, in response to Shakespeare’s Sonnet 116.

Send inquiries and answers to “Chapter and Verse,” Harvard Magazine, 7 Ware Street, Cambridge 02138 or via e-mail to chapterandverse@harvardmag.com.

Click here for the November-December 2014 issue table of contents

You might also like

Salsa Squared

Latin dancing fills the streets in Harvard Square   

No More [Lovin’ That] Dirty Water

Enjoying the Boston Harbor’s Renaissance This Summer

Sister Acts and Cyanotypes

Julia Rooney’s paintings cross the analog-digital divide.

Most popular

See Their Faces

Confronting “some of the most challenging images in the history of photography”

The Standoff: Harvard’s Future in the Balance

Introducing a guide to the issues, players, and stakes 

Judge Orders NIH to Restore Grants

Ruling likely won’t affect most of Harvard’s research cuts. 

Explore More From Current Issue

Will the U.S. Dollar Always Be So Powerful?

The preeminence of U.S. currency at risk

Walter Wick’s I Spy Series

I Spy Creator Walter Wick at the Norman Rockwell Museum 

Julia Rooney’s Cyanotype Art At Harvard

Julia Rooney’s paintings cross the analog-digital divide.