Inspirational Quotations

I never have found the perfect quote. At best I have been able to find a string of quotations which merely circle the ineffable idea I seek to express. Caldwell O'Keefe

After all, all he did was string together a lot of old, well-known quotations. H.L. Mencken

By necessity, by proclivity, and by delight, we all quote. In fact, it is as difficult to appropriate the thoughts of others as it is to invent. Ralph Waldo Emerson

I have tried my best to give the nation everything I had in me. There are probably a million people who could have done the job better than I did it, but I had the job and I always quote an epitaph on a tombstone in a cemetery in Tombstone, Arizona: "Here lies Jack Williams. He done his damndest." Harry Truman

A book of quotations—can never be complete. Robert M. Hamilton

Quotations (such as have point and lack triteness) 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. Louise Guiney

Every quotation contributes something to the stability or enlargement of the language. Samuel Johnson

I think we must quote whenever we feel that the allusion is interesting or helpful or amusing. Clifton Fadiman

A quotation, like a pun, should come unsought, and then be welcomed only for some propriety of felicity justifying the intrusion. Robert Chapman

Anecdotes and maxims are rich treasures to the man of the world, for he knows how to introduce the former at fit place in conversation. Goethe

The next best thing to saying a good thing yourself, is to quote one. Ralph Waldo Emerson

One must be a wise reader to quote wisely and well. Amos Bronson Alcott

In spite of his practical ability, some of his experience had petrified into maxims and quotations. George Eliot

I often quote myself. It adds spice to my conversation. George Bernard Shaw

A book that furnishes no quotations is no book -- it is a plaything. Thomas Peacock

Every quotation contributes something to the stability or enlargement of the language. Samuel Johnson

I quote others only in order the better to express myself. Montaigne

I pick my favorite quotation and store them in my mind as ready armor, offensive or defensive, amid the struggle of this turbulent existence. Robert Burns

Every man is a quotation from all his ancestors. Ralph Waldo Emerson

I quote others only the better to express myself. Michel Montaigne

The wisdom of the wise, and the experience of ages, may be preserved by quotation. Benjamin Disraeli

Quotation - A writer expresses himself in words that have been used before because they give his meaning better than he can give it himself, or because they are beautiful or witty, or because he expects them to touch a cord of association in his reader, or because he wishes to show that he is learned and well read. Quotations due to the last motive are invariably ill-advised; the discerning reader detects it and is contemptuous; the undiscerning is perhaps impressed, but even then is at the same time repelled, pretentious quotations being the surest road to tedium. Henry Fowler

Why are not more gems from our great authors scattered over the country? Great books are not in everybody's reach; and though it is better to know them thoroughly than to know them only here and there, yet it is a good work to give a little to those who have not the time nor means to get more. Samuel Taylor Coleridge

It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations. Bartlett's Familiar Quotations is an admirable work, and I studied it intently. The quotations when engraved upon the memory give you good thoughts. They also make you anxious to read the authors and look for more. Winston Churchill

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

Next to being witty yourself, the best thing is being able to quote another's wit Christian Nevell Bovee

The adventitious beauty of poetry may be felt in the greater delight with a verse given in a happy quotation than in the poem. Ralph Waldo Emerson

One must be a wise reader to quote wisely and well. Amos Bronson Alcott

Stronger than an army is a quotation whose time has come. W. Gates

He is a benefactor of mankind who contracts the great rules of life into short sentences, that may be easily impressed on the memory, and so recur habitually to the mind. Samuel Johnson

When we would prepare the mind by a forcible appeal, an opening quotation is a symphony preluding on the chords those tones we are about to harmonize. Benjamin Disraeli

I love quotations because it is a joy to find thoughts one might have, beautifully expressed with much authority by someone recognized wiser than oneself. Marlene Dietrich

A quotation at the right moment is like bread to the famished. The Talmud

Quotations are useful in periods of ignorance or obscurantist beliefs. Guy Debord

Reading a quotation can change the way we think about things, it can make us stop and question our current beliefs. Catherine Puslifer

When one begins to live by habit and by quotation, one has begun to stop living. James Baldwin

Our best thoughts come from others. Ralph Waldo Emerson