Motivational Quotes

Quotations

After all, all he did was string together a lot of old, well-known quotations.

- H. L. Mencken

Best Quotes about Quotations

Too much traffic with a quotation book begets a conviction of ignorance in a sensitive reader. Not only is there a mass of quotable stuff he never quotes, but an even vaster realm of which he has never heard.

Davies, Robertson

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

Robert M. Hamilton

The habit some writers indulge in of perpetual quotation is one it behooves lovers of good literature to protest against, for it is an insidious habit which in the end must cloud the stream of thought, or at least check spontaneity. If it be true that le style c'est l homme, what is likely to happen if l homme is for ever eking out his own personality with that of some other individual?

Smyth, Dame Ethel

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

Everything of importance has been said before by somebody who did not discover it.

Alfred North Whitehead

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

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

Benjamin Disraeli

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

Benjamin, Walter

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

10.

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

Baldwin, James

11.

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.

Pearson, Hesketh

12.

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

Bovee, Christian Nevell

13.

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

Robert Chapman

14.

Classical quotation is the parole of literary men all over the world.

Samuel Johnson

15.

Stronger than an army is a quotation whose time has come.

Gates, W. I. E.

16.

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

Edwin P. Whipple

17.

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

Woolf, Virginia

18.

Fidelity to the subject's thought and to his characteristic way of expressing himself is the sine qua non of journalistic quotation.

Malcolm, Janet

19.

I quote others in order to better express myself.

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

20.

Quotations are useful in periods of ignorance or obscurantist beliefs.

Debord, Guy

21.

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

22.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

23.

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

24.

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

Peacock, Thomas Love

25.

Our best thoughts come from others.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

26.

I didn't really say everything I said.

Yogi Berra

27.

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

Anatole France

28.

I have suffered a great deal from writers who have quoted this or that sentence of mine either out of its context or in juxtaposition to some incongruous matter which quite distorted my meaning , or destroyed it altogether.

Alfred North Whitehead

29.

Famous remarks are very seldom quoted correctly.

Simeon Strunsky

30.

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

31.

A quotation at the right moment is like bread to the famished.

Talmud, The

32.

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

Mark Twain

33.

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

34.

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

35.

I might repeat to myself slowly and soothingly, a list of quotations beautiful from minds profound - if I can remember any of the damn things.

Dorothy Parker

36.

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

37.

When we would prepare the mind by a forcible appeal, and opening quotation is a symphony precluding on the chords those tones we are about to harmonize.

Disraeli, Benjamin

38.

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

Seneca

39.

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

George Bernard Shaw

40.

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

Dan Quayle

41.

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

42.

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

43.

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

Edward Young

44.

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

45.

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

46.

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.

47.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

48.

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

49.

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

Cross, Amanda

50.

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