And even less time not to type this meaningless and unnecessarily rude comment. My meaningless and unnecessarily rude comment, on the other hand, took quite a bit longer.

That's why I too often have that xkcd strip about people being wrong on the internet in mind _before_ writing a comment on HN.

StackOverflow is for "well, actually...".

If we're being technical about it, Reddit is for comments like yours. (and this one)

That's a brilliant use of that xkcd classic because it also dampens the chance of posting it yet again here.

Sometimes when you ask someone a question like "where did that quote come from" you get more than just the title of the book. Maybe they have an interesting story to retell about where they first heard it. Maybe they can give you a more personal perspective that resonates a bit more than whatever you'd find from a cursory glance at some Google search results.

The beauty of Google for quotes - in addition to the obvious one, that you're saving someone else the effort of doing the work for you and getting your answer in seconds - is that you've got search access to primary sources like books and many periodicals. That is important, since the more popular a given quote, the more likely it is that it will be misattributed. We puny humans absolutely cannot be trusted to attribute quotes correctly.

I suppose it's a matter of personal politics whether that all matters more to you than getting an anecdote back like, "I was listening to an old radio show when I heard Winston Churchill intone Great are the stars, and man is of no account to them," or something.