The ability to quote is a serviceable substitute for wit.

The ability to quote is a serviceable substitute for wit.

Maybe our favorite quotations say more about us than about the stories and people we're quoting.

Maybe our favorite quotations say more about us than about the stories and people we're quoting.

I pick my favourite quotations and store them in my mind as ready armour, offensive or defensive, amid the struggle read more

I pick my favourite quotations and store them in my mind as ready armour, offensive or defensive, amid the struggle of this turbulent existence.

A fine quotation is a diamond in the hand of a man of wit and a pebble in the hand read more

A fine quotation is a diamond in the hand of a man of wit and a pebble in the hand of a fool.

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

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

An apt quotation is like a lamp which flings its light over the whole sentence.

An apt quotation is like a lamp which flings its light over the whole sentence.

To quote copiously and well requires taste, judgment and erudition, a feeling for the beautiful, an appreciation of the noble, read more

To quote copiously and well requires taste, judgment and erudition, a feeling for the beautiful, an appreciation of the noble, and a sense of the profound

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.

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.