With all deference to Chairman Mao and other authors whose quotations derive from longer works, it seemed that I was read more

With all deference to Chairman Mao and other authors whose quotations derive from longer works, it seemed that I was becoming the world's first writer of self-contained ready-made quotations

Every book is a quotation; and every house is a quotation out of all forests and mines and stone quarries; read more

Every book is a quotation; and every house is a quotation out of all forests and mines and stone quarries; and every man is a quotation from all his ancestors

Quotation is the highest compliment you can pay to an author

Quotation is the highest compliment you can pay to an author

Proverbs often contradict one another, as any reader soon discovers. The sagacity that advises us to look before we leap read more

Proverbs often contradict one another, as any reader soon discovers. The sagacity that advises us to look before we leap promptly warns us that if we hesitate we are lost; that absence makes the heart grow fonder, but out of sight, out of mind.

He that tries to recommend (Shakespeare) by select quotations, will succeed like the pedant in "Hierocles", who, when he offered read more

He that tries to recommend (Shakespeare) by select quotations, will succeed like the pedant in "Hierocles", who, when he offered his house to sale, carried a brick in his pocket as a specimen

In literature as in love, we are astonished at what is chosen by others.

In literature as in love, we are astonished at what is chosen by others.

By necessity, by proclivity, and by delight, we all quote.

By necessity, by proclivity, and by delight, we all quote.

I do not say a proverb is amiss when aptly and reasonably applied, but to be forever discharging them, right read more

I do not say a proverb is amiss when aptly and reasonably applied, but to be forever discharging them, right or wrong, hit or miss, renders conversation insipid and vulgar.

Certain brief sentences are peerless in their ability to give one the feeling that nothing remains to be said

Certain brief sentences are peerless in their ability to give one the feeling that nothing remains to be said