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.

She had a pretty gift for quotation, which is a serviceable substitute for wit.

She had a pretty gift for quotation, which is a serviceable substitute for wit.

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.

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

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

The teachings of elegant sayings should be collected when one can. For the supreme gift of words of wisdom, any read more

The teachings of elegant sayings should be collected when one can. For the supreme gift of words of wisdom, any price will be paid.

The wisdom of the wise and the experience of the ages is preserved into perpetuity by a nation's proverbs, fables, read more

The wisdom of the wise and the experience of the ages is preserved into perpetuity by a nation's proverbs, fables, folk sayings and quotations.

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.