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

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

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

Edwin P. Whipple

Quotations are useful in periods of ignorance or obscurantist beliefs.

Debord, Guy

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

Talmud, The

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

Our best thoughts come from others.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

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

Peacock, Thomas Love

Famous remarks are very seldom quoted correctly.

Simeon Strunsky

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

10.

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

11.

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

Dan Quayle

12.

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

Mark Twain

13.

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

Rudyard Kipling

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.

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

Emerson, Ralph Waldo

16.

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

Brendan Francis

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.

Hesketh Pearson

18.

Life itself is a quotation.

Jorge Luis Borges

19.

Write a wise saying and your name will live forever.

20.

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

21.

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

David H. Comins

22.

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

Ambrose Bierce

23.

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

24.

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

Benjamin, Walter

25.

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

George Bernard Shaw

26.

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

Edward Young

27.

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.

28.

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

29.

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

30.

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

Woolf, Virginia

31.

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

32.

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

33.

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

Alfred North Whitehead

34.

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

Bovee, Christian Nevell

35.

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

36.

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

Cross, Amanda

37.

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

Hassan, Ihab

38.

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

Seneca

39.

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