~ The wisdom of the wise, and the experience of ages, may be preserved by quotations. ~

~ Every man is a quotation from all his ancestors ~

~ 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. ~

~ Proverbs are always platitudes until you have personally experienced the truth of them. ~

~ The power of quotation is as dreadful a weapon as any which the human intellect can forge. ~

~ I often quote myself. It adds spice to my conversation. ~

~ Quote me as saying I was mis-quoted. ~

~ Quotations from the great old authors are an act of reverence on the part of the quoter, and a blessing to a public grown superficial and external. ~

~ Almost every wise saying has an opposite one, no less wise, to balance it. ~

~ In the dying world I come from quotation is a national vice. It used to be the classics, now it's lyric verse. ~

~ Classical quotation is a parole of literary men all over the world. ~

~ Misquotations are the only quotations that are never misquoted. ~

~ Reading any collection of a man's quotations is like eating the ingredients that go into a stew instead of cooking them together in the pot. You eat all the carrots, then all the potatoes, then the meat. You won't go away hungry, but it's not quite satisfying. Only a biography, or autobiography, gives you the hot meal. ~

~ 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. ~