Quotations

This is a page for Quotations about Quotations:

• A fine quotations is a diamond on the finger of a man of wit, and a pebble in the hand of a fool. ~ Joseph Roux, Meditations of a Parish Priest

• A proverb is a short sentence based on long experience. ~ Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

• Almost every wise saying has an opposite one, no less wise, to balance it. ~ George Santayana

• An apt quotation is like a lamp which flings its light over the whole sentence. ~ L. E. Landon, Romance and Reality

• And yes the reason I love quotes— it gets us back to the way life used to be and should be... and we must be reminded as life is becoming very stressful, very busy, families are no longer what they "used to be" and I love to be reminded to "slow down and smell the roses" think about where you are going and what you are doing. They truly give life perspective. ~ Bobbi Fillmore

• Anyone can tell the truth, but only very few of us can make epigrams. ~ W. Somerset Maugham, A Winter's Notebook

• Beware of thinkers whose minds function only when they are fueled by a quotation. ~ E. M. Cioran, Anathemas and Admirations

• Books of quotations are an elemental model of how culture is perpetuated, the wisdom of the trite passed on to posterity, to be added to, edited, and modified by subsequent generations. ~ Robert Andrews

• By necessity, by proclivity, and by delight, we all quote. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, Letters and Social Aims (1876)

• I always have a quotation for everything— it saves original thinking. ~ Dorothy Sayers

• I do not speak the minds of others except to speak my own mind better. ~ Montaigne, "Of the Education of Children"; Variant: I quote others only the better to express myself.

• I love quotations because it is a joy to find thoughts one might have, beautifully expressed with much authority by someone recognized wiser than oneself.~ Marlene Dietrich

• I need no dictionary of quotations to remind me that the eyes are the windows of the soul. ~ Max Beerbohm

• I shall never be ashamed to quote a bad author if what he says is good. ~ Seneca the Younger, "On Tranquility of Mind"

• Immortality. I notice that as soon as writers broach this question they begin to quote. I hate quotation. Tell me what you know.
  • This is a remark Emerson wrote in his journals referring to the unreliability of second hand testimony and worse upon the subject of immortality. It is often taken out of proper context, and has even begun appearing on the internet as "I hate quotations. Tell me what you know" or sometimes just "I hate quotations." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson Journals (May 1849)

• Next to being witty, the best thing is being able to quote another's wit. ~ Christopher N. Bovee

• Next to the originator of a good sentence is the first quoter of it. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

• One good quote is worth a book. ~ Anonymous

• One original thought is worth a thousand mindless quotings. ~ Diogenes

• Quotation is the highest compliment you can pay to an author. ~ Samuel Johnson

• Quotation, n. The act of repeating erroneously the words of another. The words erroneously repeated. ~ Ambrose Bierce

• Quotations can be valuable, like raisins in the rice pudding, for adding iron as well as eye appeal. ~ Peg Bracken, I Didn't Come Here to Argue

• Quotation confesses inferiority. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson, Letters and Social Aims (1876)

• Quotations help us remember the simple yet profound truths that give life perspective and meaning. When it comes to life's most important lessons, we can all use gentle reminders. ~ Chriswell Freeman

• Some men's words I remember so well that I must often use them to express my thought. Yes, because I perceive that we have heard the same truth, but they have heard it better. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

• The ability to quote is a serviceable substitute for wit. ~ Somerset Maugham

• The best ideas are common property. ~ Seneca the Younger "On Old Age", Moral Letters to Lucilius

• The great writers of aphorisms read as if they had all known each other very well. ~ Elias Canetti, The Human Province

• The next best thing to being clever is being able to quote someone who is. ~ Mary Pettibone Poole

• The wisdom of the wise and the experience of the ages are perpetuated by quotations. ~ Isaac Disraeli, Curiosities of Literature

• Those quotations were really quite obscure. Anyone can see that he is a very well read man. ~ Barbara Pym

• To be occasionally quoted is the only fame I hope for. ~ Alexander Smith

• What's the use of a good quotation if you can't change it? ~ Robert Holmes

• When a thing has been said and well said, have no scruple; take it and copy it. ~ Anatole France

• Wisdom is meaningless until your own experience has given it meaning ... and there is wisdom in the selection of wisdom.~ Bergen Evens

• Wise men make proverbs, but fools repeat them. ~ Samuel Palmer

• You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say will be misquoted, then used against you. ~ Anonymous