Motivational Quotes

Quotations

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

- Mark Twain

Best Quotes about Quotations

Quotations offer one kind of break in what the eye can see, the ear can hear.

Hassan, Ihab

Misquotations are the only quotations that are never misquoted.

Hesketh Pearson

Our best thoughts come from others.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

I think we must quote whenever we feel that the allusion is interesting or helpful or amusing.

Fadiman, Clifton

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

Brendan Francis

People will accept your ideas much more readily if you tell them Benjamin Franklin said it first.

David H. Comins

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

Morely, John

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

Peacock, Thomas Love

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

10.

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

Samuel Johnson

11.

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

12.

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

Gates, W. I. E.

13.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

14.

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

Oscar Wilde

15.

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

Anatole France

16.

There is not less wit nor less invention in applying rightly a thought one finds in a book, than in being the first author of that thought.

Pierre Bayle

17.

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

18.

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

19.

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

20.

Now we sit through Shakespeare in order to recognize the quotations.

Orson Welles

21.

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

22.

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

23.

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

Alfred North Whitehead

24.

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

Andre Malraux

25.

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

Mark Twain

26.

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

Edwin P. Whipple

27.

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

Malcolm, Janet

28.

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

Samuel Johnson

29.

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

30.

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

31.

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

32.

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

George Bernard Shaw

33.

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

34.

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

Benjamin Disraeli

35.

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

36.

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

H. L. Mencken

37.

I quote others in order to better express myself.

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

38.

Great speeches have always had great soundbites. The problem now is that the young technicians who put together speeches are paying attention only to the soundbite, not to the text as a whole, not realizing that all great soundbites happen by accident, which is to say, all great soundbites are yielded up inevitably, as part of the natural expression of the text. They are part of the tapestry, they aren't a little flower somebody sewed on.

Noonan, Peggy

39.

I didn't really say everything I said.

Yogi Berra

40.

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

41.

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

42.

A short saying oft contains much wisdom.

Sophocles

43.

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

Woolf, Virginia

44.

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

Bovee, Christian Nevell

45.

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

Benjamin, Walter

46.

It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations. Bartlett's Familiar Quotations is an admirable work, and I studied it intently. The quotations when engraved upon the memory give you good thoughts. They also make you anxious to read the authors and look for more.

Sir Winston Churchill

47.

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

Rudyard Kipling

48.

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

Seneca

49.

Quotations are useful in periods of ignorance or obscurantist beliefs.

Debord, Guy

50.

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