The ability to quote is a serviceable substitute for wit.
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) British Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Playwright
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
Live so that your friends can defend you, but never have to.
—Arnold Glasow (1905–98) American Businessman
The multiplicity of facts and writings is become so great that everything must soon be reduced to extracts.
—Voltaire (1694–1778) French Philosopher, Author
Anyone can tell the truth, but only very few of us can make epigrams.
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) British Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Playwright
You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say will be misquoted, then used against you.
—Anonymous
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
It is the beauty and independent worth of the citations, far more than their appropriateness, which have made Johnson’s Dictionary popular even as a reading-book.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English Poet, Literary Critic, Philosopher
The next best thing to being clever is being able to quote someone who is.
—Mary Pettibone Poole American Aphorist
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
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
With just enough of learning to misquote.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
I pluck up the goodlisome herbs of sentences by pruning, eat them by reading, digest them by musing, and lay them up at length in the high seat of memory by gathering them together; that so, having tasted their sweetness, I may the less perceive the bitterness of life.
—Queen Elizabeth II (b.1926) Queen of United Kingdom
Particles of science are often very widely scattered, and writers of extensive comprehension have incidental remarks upon topics remote from the principal subject, which are often more valuable than former treatises, and which are not known because not promised in the title. He that collects these is very laudably employed, as he facilitates the progress of others, and by making that easy of attainment which is already written, may give some adventurous mind leisure for new thoughts and original designs.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Every man is a quotation from all his ancestors
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
The wise men of old have sent most of their morality down the stream of time in the light skiff of apothegm or epigram.
—Edwin Percy Whipple (1819–86) American Literary Critic
Ah, yes, I wrote the “Purple Cow”—I’m sorry, now, I wrote it! But I can tell you, anyhow, I’ll kill you if you quote it.
—Gelett Burgess (1866–1951) American Humorist, Art Critic
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 neither time nor means to get more. Let every bookworm, when in any fragrant, scarce old tome he discovers a sentence, a story, an illustration, that does his heart good, hasten to give it.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English Poet, Literary Critic, Philosopher
Next to being witty yourself, the best thing is being able to quote another’s wit.
—Christian Nestell Bovee (1820–1904) American Writer, Aphorist
I might repeat to myself, slowly and soothingly, a list of quotations beautiful from minds profound; if I can remember any of the damned things.
—Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American Humorist, Journalist
It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read a book of quotations.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
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
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.’
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
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
Every quotation contributes something to the stability or enlargement of the language.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Children seldom misquote. In fact, they usually repeat word for word what you shouldn’t have said.
—Anonymous
I have only made a nosegay of culled flowers, and have brought nothing of my own but the thread that ties them together.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
Almost every wise saying has an opposite one, no less wise, to balance it.
—George Santayana (1863–1952) Spanish-American Poet, Philosopher
One must be a wise reader to quote wisely and well.
—Amos Bronson Alcott (1799–1888) American Teacher, Writer, Philosopher
Next to the originator of a good sentence is the first quoter of it. Many will read the book before one thinks of quoting a passage. As soon as he has done this, that line will be quoted east and west.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
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
The adventitious beauty of poetry may be felt in the greater delight with a verse given in a happy quotation than in the poem.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Proverbs are always platitudes until you have personally experienced the truth of them.
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English Humanist, Pacifist, Essayist, Short Story Writer, Satirist
Quotation, sir, is a good thing; there is a community of mind in it: classical quotation is the parole of literary men all over the world.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
I not only use all the brains that I have, but all that I can borrow.
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) American Head of State
Quotation is the highest compliment you can pay to an author.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
I have somewhere seen it observed that we should make the same use of a book that the bee does of a flower; she steals sweets from it, but does not injure it.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
The proverb answers where the sermon fails, as a well-charged pistol will do more execution than a whole barrel of gunpowder idly exploded in the air.
—William Gilmore Simms (1806–70) American Poet, Novelist, Historian
Some men’s words I remember so well that I must often use them to express my thought. Yes, because I perceive that we have heard the same truth, but they have heard it better.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Our best thoughts come from others.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
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.
—Saul Alinsky (1909–72) American Community Organizer, Political Theorist
By necessity, by proclivity, and by delight, we quote,—We quote not only books and proverbs, but arts, sciences, religions, customs, and laws; nay, we quote temples and houses, tables and chairs by imitation.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
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.
—Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Journalist, Author
We ought never to be afraid to repeat an ancient truth, when we feel that we can make it more striking by a neater turn, or bring it alongside of another truth, which may make it clearer, and thereby accumulate evidence. It belongs to the inventive faculty to see clearly the relative state of things, and to be able to place them in connection; but the discoveries of ages gone by belong less to their first authors than to those who make them practically useful to the world.
—Luc de Clapiers, marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–47) French Moralist, Essayist, Writer
Quotations are useful in periods of ignorance or obscurantist beliefs.
—Guy Debord (1931–94) French Philosopher
I shall never be ashamed of citing a bad author if the line is good.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
I shall never be ashamed to quote a bad author if what he says is good.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
Wisdom is meaningless until your own experience has given it meaning, and there is wisdom in the selection of wisdom.
—Bergen Evans
Quotation, n. The act of repeating erroneously the words of another. The words erroneously repeated.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
I often quote myself. It adds spice to my conversation.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright