Where did the quote, "Knock on wood" come from?
360818
To touch wood or knock on wood is a superstition action to ward off any evil consequences or bad luck, perhaps because of some recent action you’ve taken or untimely boasting about your good fortune (“I’ve never been in danger of drowning, touch wood”); it can also be a charm to bring good luck.\nThe origin is unknown, though some writers have pointed to pre-Christian rituals involving the spirits of sacred trees such as the oak, ash, holly or hawthorn. There is, I’m told, an old Irish belief that you should knock on wood to let the little people know that you are thanking them for a bit of good luck. There’s also a belief that the knocking sound prevents the Devil from hearing your unwise comments. Others have sought a meaning in which the wood symbolises the timber of the cross, but this may be a Christianisation of an older ritual. It wasn’t always wood that was lucky: in older days, iron was also thought to have magical properties, and to touch iron was an equivalent preventative against ill-fortune.\nThe phrase itself is relatively modern, as the oldest citation for the British version of the phrase, touch wood, that I can find dates only from 1899. The American equivalent knock on wood is roughly contemporary, with my first example from 1905.
778170
I'm not entirely sure, but I think it originated with the Rolling Stones as they described their backstage parties for an interview of somesort. The saying has pretty much been adopted by every rock group and wannabe rocker eversince as a way of answering why they're in the music buisness.
131918
The phrase means to die.  It comes from the following:  The wooden frame that slaughtered animals were hung from is known as a bucket. The death spasms of the animals caused them to kick the bucket. \n\nI refer to the site below for all of my phrase origin needs.
62730
I couldn't find the quote, but I found a site with a bunch of similiar quotes.\n\nhttp://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/War
881022
Comes from "take the cake"\n\nCake: When someone takes the cake they are regarded as having come first in some, often trivial, activity or other. Most authorities consider that this saying goes back to the days of slavery in the USA. The slaves used to hold competitions to see which couple could produce the most elegant walk. The best promenaders won a prize, almost always a cake. The extravagant walk required for this type of competition came to be called a Cakewalk and this gave rise to the old fashioned expression "it's a cakewalk". However the meaning later came to emphasise the trivial nature of the competition and began to imply that the effort needed was minor and of little account. In consequence the modern saying "it's a piece of cake" could well be based on these old customs. \nThere is a much older possible origin, going back to the ancient Greeks. A "cake" in those times was a toasted cereal bound together with honey. It was given to the most vigilant man on night watch. Aristotle is quoted as having written in "The Knights": "if you surpass him in impudence, then we take the cake".
790116
It means that the the speaker is fearful of a rumored threat, and (as others have pointed out) comes from the classic Wizard of Oz.\n\nThere was no "song" accompanying this quote, though Dorothy, Tin Man, and Scarecrow chanted it rhythmically as they proceeded through the Spooky Forest (I'd turn back if I were you).
830139
Original quote was by Dr. William W. Purkey, an internationally recognized leader in the theory and practice of making schools and classrooms inviting places to learn, and the co-founder of the International Alliance for Invitational Education, an organization of more than 1200 individuals who believe that schools should be engaging places where students enjoy learning.\n\nIt was made popular in the song "Come From The Heart" written by Susannah Clark and Richard Leigh.
624846
I have a reference from 1997 that already says it is old:\nhttp://www.pbs.org/newshour/forum/august97/terror01.html\n\nThe fact that numerous sources fail to give the original source of the quote suggests that no-one actually knows when it was first used.
296765
"stroke his ego".  for sure... this is a saying like, "chip on the shoulder" \n\nego is the idea Freud came up with I think... its about identity and personality and how one thinks of one's self... so she is trying to make him feel better, and in english the saying for that is, "stroke his ego"
292024
My understanding it comes from wood pecker.
868294
I think it was coined by Martin Lawrence, the same man who gave us "You go, Girl!"\n\nCave\n\np.s.---Just found this:\n\n"In the case of "don't go there," the earliest citation for the phrase in print in the Oxford English Dictionary comes from an interview with comedian Martin Lawrence in Entertainment Weekly back in February 1994. At the time the star of the highly-rated Fox sitcom "Martin," Lawrence took the opportunity to complain, oddly enough, that his material was being stolen by other Fox shows: \n\n"Something ain't right," Lawrence says, removing his sunglasses. ... "We started using the expressions 'You go, girl!' and 'Don't go there!' and no one in television was doing that. No one. Now a lot of Fox shows are using the same stuff and the same premises."
350498
i searched yahoo and http://www.quoteland.com noting came up\nmaybe its not a real quote
741742
I think it's a euphemism for "jacksh-t"\nSo now the question is, where did THAT phrase come from?
232019
Where did u hear this from? (place, person)
112033
Don't know who said it recently but it's a quote from Shakespeare\n\n"Cry HAVOC' and let slip the dogs of war!" - William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act III
1455
Its analogous to "every which way" or "as much/often as possible."  According to lastsource.com (which is linked below in cached form, as I was having trouble accessing the site), the phrase originated in Rome during the early days of Christianity:  In order to encourage Church-goers to show up to Mass on time, the parish priest would have the last person to arrive beaten mercilessly the other 6 days of the week.
1064489
I've heard something that sounds similar:\n\n" If your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail " \n\nBut I can't remember who quoted that though.