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.
—Ihab Hassan (1925–2015) Egypt-born American Literary Theorist, Writer
One whom it is easier to hate, but still easier to quote–Alexander Pope.
—Augustine Birrell (1850–1933) English Politician, Essayist
The next best thing to being clever is being able to quote someone who is.
—Mary Pettibone Poole American Aphorist
I improve on misquotation.
—Cary Grant (1904–86) British-American Film Actor
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.
—Robertson Davies (1913–95) Canadian Novelist, Playwright, Essayist
The obscurest sayings of the truly great are often these which contain the germ of the profoundest and most useful truths.
—Giuseppe Mazzini (1805–72) Italian Patriot, Political Leader
Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Wise sayings often fall on barren ground, but a kind word is never thrown away.
—Arthur Helps (1813–75) English Dramatist, Essayist
Quotations offer one kind of break in what the eye can see, the ear can hear.
—Ihab Hassan (1925–2015) Egypt-born American Literary Theorist, Writer
Life itself is a quotation.
—Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) Argentine Writer, Essayist, Poet
Wisdom is meaningless until your own experience has given it meaning, and there is wisdom in the selection of wisdom.
—Bergen Evans
A book that furnishes no quotations is no book — it is a plaything.
—Thomas Love Peacock (1785–1866) English Satirist, Novelist, Author
An apt quotation is like a lamp which flings its light over the whole sentence.
—Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–38) English Poet, Novelist
I love quotations because it is a joy to find thoughts one might have, beautifully expressed with much authority by someone recognizably wiser than oneself.
—Marlene Dietrich (1901–92) German-born American Actor, Singer
I pick my favorite quotation and store them in my mind as ready armor, offensive or defensive, amid the struggle of this turbulent existence.
—Robert Burns (1759–96) Scottish Poet, Songwriter
I always have a quotation for everything–it saves original thinking.
—Dorothy L. Sayers (1893–1957) British Crime Writer
The essence of a quote is the compression of a mass of thought and observation into a single saying.
—John Morley, 1st Viscount Morley of Blackburn (1838–1923) British Political Leader, Writer, Editor, Journalist
The wisdom of the wise and the experience of ages may be preserved by quotation.
—Isaac D’Israeli (1766–1848) English Writer, Scholar
Quotations are useful in periods of ignorance or obscurantist beliefs.
—Guy Debord (1931–94) French Philosopher
Quote me as saying I was mis-quoted.
—Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American Actor, Comedian, Singer
In the dying world I come from quotation is a national vice. It used to be the classics, now it’s lyric verse.
—Evelyn Waugh (1903–66) British Novelist, Essayist, Biographer
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 (1715–63) Chinese Writer
He wrapped himself in quotations — as a beggar would enfold himself in the purple of emperors.
—Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) British Children’s Books Writer, Short story, Novelist, Poet, Journalist
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 (1861–1947) English Mathematician, Philosopher
Everything of importance has been said before by somebody who did not discover it.
—Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) English Mathematician, Philosopher
With just enough of learning to misquote.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
The power of quotation is as dreadful a weapon as any which the human intellect can forge.
—John Jay Chapman (1862–1933) American Biographer, Poet, Essayist, Writer
I think we must quote whenever we feel that the allusion is interesting or helpful or amusing.
—Clifton Fadiman (1904–99) American Author, Radio Personality