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.

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.

Wise sayings often fall on barren ground, but a kind word is never thrown away.

Wise sayings often fall on barren ground, but a kind word is never thrown away.

I hate quotation. Tell me what you know.

I hate quotation. Tell me what you know.

I need no dictionary of quotations to remind me that the eyes are the windows of the soul

I need no dictionary of quotations to remind me that the eyes are the windows of the soul

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.

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

Pay attention and listen to the sayings of the wise; apply your heart to what I teach, for it is read more

Pay attention and listen to the sayings of the wise; apply your heart to what I teach, for it is pleasing when you keep them in your heart and have all of them ready on your lips

I love quotations because it is a joy to find thoughts one might have, beautifully expressed with much authority by read more

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.