You could compile, I should think, the worst book in the world entirely out of selecting passages from the best writers in the world. ~G.K. Chesterton, “On Writing Badly”TPVgb, quoted in On Lying In Bed And Other Essays By G.K. Chesterton, by Alberto Manguel
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I am not merely a habitual quoter but an incorrigible one. I am, I may......
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Quotologists encounter happy surprises, bright books by faded authors, treasures hidden under dust. ~Willis Goth......
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I here present thee with a hive of bees, laden some with wax, and some......
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It is a rich storehouse for those who love quotations. It is as full of......
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This fellow pecks up wit, as pigeons peas; And utters it again when God doth......
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Now we sit through Shakespeare in order to recognize the quotations. ~Orson Welles, attributed...
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A good maxim is never out of season. ~English Proverb...
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Proverbs are the daughters of daily experience. ~Dutch Proverb...
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Proverbs are the literature of reason. ~French Proverb...
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Whatever is felicitously expressed risks being worse expressed: it is a wretched taste to be......
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Unless created as freestanding works, quotations resemble “found” art. They are analogous, say, to a......
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A fine quotation is a diamond on the finger of a man of wit, and......
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Proverbs accordingly are somewhat analogous to those medical Formulas which, being in frequent use, are......
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Who knows but that all the men to whom reference has been made, and a......
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The lips of the wise are as the doors of a cabinet; no sooner are......
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All quotation dictionaries stand on the shoulders of their predecessors, which must be consulted as......
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The attribution of a speaker is in fact a part of the quotation. Some statements......
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The great writers of aphorisms read as if they had all known each other well.......
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APHORISM, n. Predigested wisdom. The flabby wine-skin of his brain Yields......
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Someone who can write aphorisms should not fritter away his time writing essays. ~Karl Kraus,......
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It’s such a pleasure to write down splendid words...
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The man who writes a single line, And hears it often quoted, Will in his......
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Proverbs often contradict one another, as any reader soon discovers. The sagacity that advises us......
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Gnomic wisdom, however, is notoriously polychrome, and proverbs depend for their truth entirely on the......
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Many are the sayings of Elia… scattered about in obscure periodicals and forgotten miscellanies. From......
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An anthology of quotations is a museum of utterances. ~Gary Saul Morson, The Words of......
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A vast meaning is unfolded in each line, with such power that a sentence only......
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To me, novels are just quotations with a bunch of filler. ~Terri Guillemets...
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What remains therefore, but that our last Recourse must be had to large Indexes, and......
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As the highly colored birds do not fly around in the dull, leaden plains of......
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A quoting author is just as ridiculous as a country girl upon her first coming......
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Thus have I, as well as I could, gathered a posey of observations as they......
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In literary composition a well-chosen quotation lights up the page like a fine engraving… ~William......
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An apt quotation is as good as an original remark. ~Proverb...
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Whatever we may say against collections, which present authors in a disjointed form, they nevertheless......
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Whoever reads only to transcribe or quote shining remarks without entering into the genius and......
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Books of quotation are not only of importance to the reader for what they contain......
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The Grecian’s maxim would indeed be a sweeping clause in Literature; it would reduce many......
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And if these little sparks of holy fire, which I have heaped together, do not......
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Wise sayings are the light-towers along the journey of life. ~Attributed to Johnson in Sayings:......
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At any rate, nothing was more characteristic of him [Walter Benjamin] in the thirties than......
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It is perfectly delightful to take advantage of the conscientious labors of those who go......
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Immortality. I notice that as soon as writers broach this question they begin to quote.......
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A good thought is indeed a great boon, for which God is to be first......
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Epigrams succeed where epics fail. ~Persian Proverb...
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Such do not always understand the authors whose names adorn their barren pages, and which......
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Quotes are nothing but inspiration for the uninspired. ~Attributed to Richard Kemph...
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A man, groundly learned already, may take much profit himself in using by epitome to......
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In ancient days, tradition says, When knowledge was much stinted...
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A proverb is an exploding atom of wisdom. ~Gaston Kabor...
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Nothing ever becomes real till it is experienced...
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The aphorism is cultivated only by those who have known fear in the midst of......
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Quotations cause all kinds of trouble. ~Willis Goth Regier, Quotology, 2010TPV, UWP, p.37...
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Hush, little bright line, don’t you cry You’ll be a clich...
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As a good housewife out of divers fleeces weaves one piece of cloth, a bee......
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Unraveling proverbs is a suitable puzzle for an old man. I put pieces in order......
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One man’s wit, and all men’s wisdom. ~John Russell, definition of a proverbin conversation, cited......
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A garbled quotation is equivalent to a betrayal, an insult, a prejudice. ~E.M. CioranAnathemas and......
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What is an Epigram? A dwarfish Whole, Its Body brevity, and wit its Soul. ~Samuel......
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Take my advice, dear reader, don’t talk epigrams even if you have the gift. I......
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But proverbs are always platitudes until you have personally experienced the truth of them. ~Aldous......
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I love quotes because good quotes are vitamins for the brain! ~Patrick Driessen...
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A true quotation cannot be divorced from the character who uttered or scribbled it; it......
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One is more apt to become wise by doing fool things than by reading wise......
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I swim across a sea of quotes, splashing in the words and riding the waves......
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A proper collection of quotations is the whole world digested. ~Terri Guillemets...
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If you don’t quote yourself, nobody else will. And you can quote me on that.......
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One has to secrete a jelly in which to slip quotations down people’s throats...
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A Common-place-Book is what a provident Poet cannot subsist without, for this proverbial Reason, that......
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You will find professed quotations from authors, of the correctness of which you will not......
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A knowledge of general literature is one of the evidences of an enlightened mind; and......
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To select well among old things is almost equal to inventing new ones. ~Nicolas Charles......
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Collections of gnomes, adages, sayings, and parables have been made from times immemorial in all......
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A good aphorism is too hard for the tooth of time, and is not worn......
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They are the abridgments of wisdom. ~Sumner Ellis, Hints on Preaching: A Cloud of Witnesses,......
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I protest, for about the hundredth time, against the slipshod method of quoting a mere......
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Indeed a good quotation hardly ever comes amiss. It is a pleasing break in the......
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This little book is not put forth to supply an imperative demand, but rather with......
- These fruit thoughts of a students learned leisure
These fruit-thoughts of a student’s learned leisure, may aptly become the seed-thoughts for many vacant......
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The obscurest sayings of the truly great are often those which contain the germ of......
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A verse may find him whom a sermon flies, And turn delight into a sacrifice…......
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We sometimes think of quotations as extracts from larger texts, but some quotations originated complete......
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Maria Edgeworth grumbled against vandals who ruined immortal works by quoting the life out of......
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It should be a pleasure to the appreciative reader, while recognizing their beauty, to cull......
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Others, again, give us the mere carcass of another man’s thoughts, but deprived of all......
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There is a homely directness about these rustic apothegms which makes them far more palatable......
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That part of a work of one author found in another is not of itself......
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Dr. Richard Bentley (1662-1742)… is said one day, on finding his son reading a novel,......
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To the editor, the author, and the public speaker, it is believed that a great......
- Apothegms to thinking minds are the seeds
Apothegms to thinking minds are the seeds from which spring vast fields of new thought,......
- A man of maxims only is like
A man of maxims only is like a Cyclops with one eye, and that in......
- Euphonic and harmonious expressions forcible just profound
Euphonic and harmonious expressions, forcible and just expressions, profound and comprehensive expressions, and especially apt......
- I didnt do anything that can properly
…I didn’t do anything that can properly be called research; rather, I proceeded by the......
- Its amazing how much funny stuff there
It’s amazing how much funny stuff there is…. [A] river of rich comedic milk is......
- Were a compulsive but amiable crew those
We’re a compulsive but amiable crew, those of us who feel, or have felt, the......
- Oh to say something so fine memorable
Oh, to say something so fine, so memorable, that it carries across time, oceans, and......