I know the quote, but I never knew there was an internet hunt for the source. I figure Earl Snake-Hips Tucker found the actual source and the rest is public consciousness, a la “Play it again, Sam” and “Elementary, my dear Watson”.
But darned if my brain doesn’t want badly to place the whole mystery quote. :smack:
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14 kinds of gifts in a full Puggalika dana?
(May be Dana-parami, but that could be a translation thing?)
I also remember hearing this quote, and the context I’m vaguely remembering is from Futurama, something that Prof. Farnsworth might’ve said.
Considering how that show is chock-full of references, I wouldn’t rule it out.
I strongly believe that you guys who think this quote exists elsewhere are wrong. You have just heard it enough times, and imagined it enough times, that you think it’s real. Just look at how many people say “I think it was this actor”, or “I think it was in this movie”…and they are all not only wrong, but these memories are all totally different from each other.
Some passages from this article:
No offense, but please stop telling me that I’ve made up my memories. You’ve been beating this drum for awhile now and it’s kind of insulting. Obviously, I can’t speak for everyone, but I know that I’m familiar with a very particular reading of the quote ("it doesn’t do anything) that hasn’t been confirmed yet. My belief is that there are probably lots of very similar quotes throughout multiple mediums (books, movies, commercials, etc.) and maybe everybody is trying to fit them into the same mold. That’s not the same as imagining they know something they’ve never heard…
Here’s an example of a similar quote that could be fooling people:
Memorable quotes for
“The Simpsons”
Blood Feud (1991)
[looking at a giant stone head Mr. Burns has had delivered to the
Simpson house]
Homer: Marge, what does it do?
Marge: It doesn’t do anything.
Homer: Marge, really, what does it do?
Marge: Whatever it does, it’s doing it right now.
Marge Gunderson: “Okay! But are ya sure?”
First of all, to insist that you remember an actual experience in which the quote in question was said in a movie, TV show, radio, etc., shows that you are ignorant of how memory works. The point to the reference you are deriding is that you simply cannot state such a thing with positivity. If you could, you could state the exact situation, in such a way that it could be verified.
This is one of the first practical things one learns as an attorney: relying upon memory is a notoriously tricky thing.
Everyone who thinks they have seen or heard this quote has an opinion as to where. Some are definite as to the source, but it turns out they are wrong. Others are vague as to the source, leading one to believe they may well be conflating multiple experiences upon the prompt of the alleged quote in question, or simply are “remembering” based upon the suggestion of the quote. It isn’t hard to demonstrate to yourself that this is possible; simply talk one time to a friend about a supposed experience the two of you had together in the past. Without too much difficulty, you can get the friend to recall something that never actually happened.
I, too, have thought I have heard the line in question. I cannot put my finger on when or where. Everytime someone suggests something I have seen (for example, Mr. Roberts, I think, “yeah, yeah, that’s it!” Then I stop to think more and realize I don’t recall that for certain at all, even if I can just hear Jack Lemmon saying it.
So don’t reject the assertion out of hand, and don’t be offended by it. In the absence of some better recollection, you may well simply be mis-remembering. 
No offense is intended: this is the way memory works, for all of us. You, me, your mailman, the Pope, Rosie O’Donnell, everybody. The cited research shows how easy it is to manipulate and reconstruct one’s memories such that one can believe, absolutely and unshakably, in the fact of a provable fiction. It’s the way it is, whether you like it or not.
I think you are a little too close to this. The reports on the thread, including the one you refer to, are the evidence that memory works that way. There’s no need to belittle the reports, or to suggest someone is ignorant of something. These are the very types of reports that provide cognitive scientists with a foundation for a theory. Labratory and clinical experiments only back up what the evidence from real life is showing - what you said. It’s also a bit arrogant to imply that you know what we remember or don’t remember. You don’t know for sure, either, although I grant the fact that someone hasn’t solved the problem suggests that you are correct. That’s what someone is twitching about. To tell someone that they don’t know anything about the way memory works is to tell someone to ignore their entire experience. It’s the tone, not the ultimate content.
I don’t know what that means.
Re the rest of it, “your memories are unreliable” != “your memories are wrong.”
Exactly. I absolutely agree that memory is malleable. I’ve never suggested that there was anything false about the research Ghanima quoted. That explanation could certainly account for some number of us posters. And since I have no proof otherwise, I have to admit that I could be one of those number. However, I stand by the belief that to insist that every boardmember who still believes a second and more recent source for the quote exists have just made up the memory is too presumptive and at least a little condescending.
And the fact that we can’t immediately provide concrete evidence of a second source for the quote in no way disproves its existance.
Since I opened this thread.
I’ll grant that it seems pretty strange for this episode of a TV series that last aired 10 years ago to be the source of it. However, it does have the essential elements of the original quote “It doesn’t DO anything. That’s the beauty of it.” Compare to Meredith’s Harold Harold "Do? I Nothing. . . Nothing. . . That’s the beauty of it. Emphasis on the word “do,” the mention that the contraption doesn’t do anything, and the exact quote “That’s the beauty of it.”
So far, no one has provided any reliable source for a quote that is any close than this. Every single one falls far short of those standards. But it seems pretty unsatisfying that the only citation as of this moment is from a forty-year-old TV series that last aired a decade ago.
Similarly, it’s unsatisfying that. . .
a) the earliest citation for “the whole nine yards” is an obscure 1967 Viet Nam war novel that doesn’t give any context for what it means,
b) the “ancient Chinese curse” “May you live in interesting times” is from an obscure 1950 sci-fi story by Eric Frank Russell,
c) the stereotypical “Oriental riff” seems to date back to the 1974 hit "Kung Fu Fighting, although many similar riffs exist–but that’s the earliest that that exact one has been traced.
I’d lump this episode of “Burkes’ Law” in with those. It seems a little odd, but as of this moment, it’s the best solution yet uncovered.
I think you got it, Earl Snake-Lips Tucker. You’re the only one in the history of the internet to actually provide a decent cite to back up the claim. It’s an awesome find, to be sure. 
If not you, then who is it who did make up your memories? It seems like it would be a lot harder for anyone else to do it for you.
Personally, my only exposure to this quote has been people quoting it here. I always figured it was from Futurama, since that’s something that’s in-referenced here often, it seemed the right style, and it would account for my lack of familiarity with the original (I’ve been without a TV since before Futurama started). So there’s another data point for you: Whatever it was that popularized this line, it wasn’t something I’m familiar with.
So where have you revealed this breaking news on the web? I’d like to read other peoples reactions to this.
Star Trek fans may be getting it conflated with a line of Kirk’s from “The Voyage Home.”
After having received a pair of spectacles from McCoy in “The Wrath of Khan,” Kirk, while back in time to 1986 in “The Voyage Home,” sells them to an antiques dealer. Spock asks: “…weren’t those a gift from Dr. McCoy?”
Kirk replies, “Yes, and they will be again, that’s the beauty of it.”
Sir Rhosis
Actually, according to the Yale Book of Quotations, it’s cited from 1939.
Sorry for the slight hijack.
Well, if it matters…
I just watched my dvd of the Beatles’ animated feature “Yellow Submarine” tonight (Feature Run Time: 1 hour 30 minutes . COLOR . 1968), and didn’t hear the exchange…although that’s where it sounded familiar to me.
Still, a cool movie, if you haven’t seen it.
If by “cool” you mean “legendarily bad”, yes, it is an extraordinarily “cool” movie.