Motivational Quotes

Quotations

I often quote myself. It adds spice to my conversation.

- George Bernard Shaw

Best Quotes about Quotations

When a thing has been said and well, have no scruple. Take it and copy it.

Anatole France

What is an epigram? A dwarfish whole, its body brevity, and wit its soul.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.

Oscar Wilde

A fine quotation is a diamond in the hand of a man of wit and a pebble in the hand of a fool.

Roux, Joseph

Be careful -- with quotations, you can damn anything.

Andre Malraux

A quotation in a speech, article or book is like a rifle in the hands of an infantryman. It speaks with authority.

Brendan Francis

The wisdom of the wise and the experience of the ages is preserved into perpetuity by a nation's proverbs, fables, folk sayings and quotations.

William Feather

In quoting of books, quote such authors as are usually read; others you may read for your own satisfaction, but not name them.

Selden, John

The American people would not want to know of any misquotes that Dan Quayle may or may not make.

Dan Quayle

10.

An epigram often flashes light into regions where reason shines but dimly.

Edwin P. Whipple

11.

He wrapped himself in quotations -- as a beggar would enfold himself in the purple of Emperors.

Kipling, Rudyard

12.

I am reminded of the professor who, in his declining hours, was asked by his devoted pupils for his final counsel. He replied,'Verify your quotations.'

Sir Winston Churchill

13.

Immortality. I notice that as soon as writers broach this question they begin to quote. I hate quotation. Tell me what you know.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

14.

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

Doctor Who

15.

In the dying world I come from quotation is a national vice. It used to be the classics, now it's lyric verse.

Waugh, Evelyn

16.

Misquotation is, in fact, the pride and privilege of the learned. A widely- read man never quotes accurately, for the rather obvious reason that he has read too widely.

Hesketh Pearson

17.

Quotes from Mao, Castro, and Che Guevara... are as germane to our highly technological, computerized society as a stagecoach on a jet runway at Kennedy airport.

Alinsky, Saul

18.

A fine quotation is a diamond on the finger of a man of wit, and a pebble in the hand of a fool.

Joseph Roux

19.

There are two kinds of marriages -- where the husband quotes the wife and where the wife quotes the husband.

Odets, Clifford

20.

The profoundest thought or passion sleeps as in a mine, until an equal mind and heart finds and publishes it.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

21.

A short saying oft contains much wisdom.

Sophocles

22.

A book of quotations . . . can never be complete.

Robert M. Hamilton

23.

What a good thing Adam had. When he said a good thing he knew nobody had said it before.

Mark Twain

24.

That is the point of quotations. One can use another's words to be insulting.

Cross, Amanda

25.

Next to being witty yourself, the best thing is being able to quote another's wit.

Bovee, Christian Nevell

26.

Quotation, n: The act of repeating erroneously the words of another.

Ambrose Bierce

27.

If you have any doubts that we live in a society controlled by men, try reading down the index of contributors to a volume of quotations, looking for women's names.

Elaine Gill

28.

He presents me with what is always an acceptable gift who brings me news of a great thought before unknown. He enriches me without impoverishing himself.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

29.

Write a wise saying and your name will live forever.

30.

Every quotation contributes something to the stability or enlargement of the language.

Samuel Johnson

31.

I must claim the quoter's privilege of giving only as much of the text as will suit my purpose, said Tan-Chun. If I told you how it went on, I should end up by contradicting myself!

Cao Xueqin

32.

The wisdom of the wise, and the experience of ages, may be preserved by quotation.

Benjamin Disraeli

33.

I shall never be ashamed of citing a bad author if the line is good.

Seneca

34.

Some for renown, on scraps of learning dote, And think they grow immortal as they quote.

Edward Young

35.

Quotation... A writer expresses himself in words that have been used before because they give his meaning better than he can give it himself, or because they are beautiful or witty, or because he expects them to touch a cord of association in his reader, or because he wishes to show that he is learned and well read. Quotations due to the last motive are invariably ill-advised; the discerning reader detects it and is contemptuous; the undiscerning is perhaps impressed, but even then is at the same time repelled, pretentious quotations being the surest road to tedium.

Fowler, Henry W.

36.

The essence of a quote is the compression of a mass of thought and observation into a single saying.

Morely, John

37.

He wrapped himself in quotations- as a beggar would enfold himself in the purple of Emperors.

Rudyard Kipling

38.

A book that furnishes no quotations is no book -- it is a plaything.

Peacock, Thomas Love

39.

I pick my favorite quotation and store them in my mind as ready armor, offensive or defensive, amid the struggle of this turbulent existence.

Burns, Robert

40.

A quotation, like a pun, should come unsought, and then be welcomed only for some propriety of felicity justifying the intrusion.

Robert Chapman

41.

I never have found the perfect quote. At best I have been able to find a string of quotations which merely circle the ineffable idea I seek to express.

Caldwell O'Keefe

42.

The next best thing to saying a good thing yourself, is to quote one.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

43.

Why are not more gems from our great authors scattered over the country? Great books are not in everybody's reach; and though it is better to know them thoroughly than to know them only here and there, yet it is a good work to give a little to those who have not the time nor means to get more.

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor

44.

Next to the originator of a good sentence is the first quoter of it.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

45.

When one begins to live by habit and by quotation, one has begun to stop living.

Baldwin, James

46.

One has to secrete a jelly in which to slip quotations down people's throats --and one always secretes too much jelly.

Woolf, Virginia

47.

Quotations in my work are like wayside robbers who leap out armed and relieve the stroller of his conviction.