Motivational Quotes

Quotations

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

Best Quotes about Quotations

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

Peacock, Thomas Love

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

I didn't really say everything I said.

Yogi Berra

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

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

George Bernard Shaw

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

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

Robert Chapman

A short saying oft contains much wisdom.

Sophocles

Misquotations are the only quotations that are never misquoted.

Hesketh Pearson

10.

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

11.

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

12.

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

Rudyard Kipling

13.

Famous remarks are very seldom quoted correctly.

Simeon Strunsky

14.

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

Doctor Who

15.

Our best thoughts come from others.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

16.

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

David H. Comins

17.

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

18.

To be amused by what you read--that is the great spring of happy quotations.

C. E. Montague

19.

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

20.

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

Edward Young

21.

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

Orson Welles

22.

Write a wise saying and your name will live forever.

23.

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.

24.

I quote others in order to better express myself.

Montaigne, Michel Eyquem De

25.

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

26.

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

Ambrose Bierce

27.

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

Odets, Clifford

28.

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

29.

Life itself is a quotation.

Jorge Luis Borges

30.

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

31.

We rarely quote nowadays to appeal to authority... though we quote sometimes to display our sapience and erudition. Some authors we quote against. Some we quote not at all, offering them our scrupulous avoidance, and so make them part of our white mythology. Other authors we constantly invoke, chanting their names in cerebral rituals of propitiation or ancestor worship.

Hassan, Ihab

32.

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

33.

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson

34.

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

Alfred North Whitehead

35.

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

Benjamin Disraeli

36.

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

Samuel Johnson

37.

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

Seneca

38.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

39.

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

Talmud, The

40.

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

Edwin P. Whipple

41.

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

42.

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

Mark Twain

43.

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

44.

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

Samuel Johnson

45.

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

46.

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

47.

I not only use all the brains I have but all I can borrow.

Wilson, Woodrow T.

48.

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

49.

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

Bovee, Christian Nevell

50.

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