Motivational Quotes

Quotations

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

Best Quotes about Quotations

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

George Bernard Shaw

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

Orson Welles

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

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

Our best thoughts come from others.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

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

Brendan Francis

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

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

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

Dan Quayle

10.

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

11.

Misquotations are the only quotations that are never misquoted.

Hesketh Pearson

12.

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

13.

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

Bovee, Christian Nevell

14.

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

15.

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

16.

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

Benjamin Disraeli

17.

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

18.

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

Robert M. Hamilton

19.

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

20.

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

Doctor Who

21.

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

Gates, W. I. E.

22.

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

Woolf, Virginia

23.

Noonan, Peggy

24.

Quotations are useful in periods of ignorance or obscurantist beliefs.

Debord, Guy

25.

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

Alfred North Whitehead

26.

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

Wilson, Woodrow T.

27.

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

H. L. Mencken

28.

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

Robert Chapman

29.

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

30.

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

31.

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

Odets, Clifford

32.

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

Talmud, The

33.

I didn't really say everything I said.

Yogi Berra

34.

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

Seneca

35.

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

Samuel Johnson

36.

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

37.

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

Baldwin, James

38.

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

39.

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

40.

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

Rudyard Kipling

41.

The surest way to make a monkey of a man is to quote him.

Robert Benchley

42.

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

Peacock, Thomas Love

43.

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

Fadiman, Clifton

44.

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

Malcolm, Janet

45.

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

Hassan, Ihab

46.

A short saying oft contains much wisdom.

Sophocles

47.

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

48.

Have you ever observed that we pay much more attention to a wise passage when it is quoted than when we read it in the original author?

Philip G. Hamerton

49.

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

50.

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