"Off I go, rummaging about in books for sayings which please me."
— Michel de Montaigne
"Quotation is an acceptable substitute for wit."
"Go on, get out! Last words are for fools who haven't said enough."
— Karl Marx's last words.
"Some for renown, on scraps of learning dote,
and think they grow immortal as they quote."
and think they grow immortal as they quote."
— Edward Young
"Famous remarks are very seldom quoted correctly."
— Simeon Strunsky, No Mean City (1944)
"Misquotation is, in fact, the pride and privilege of the learned. A widely-read man never quotes accurately, for the rather obvious reason that he has read too widely."
— Hesketh Pearson, Common Misquotations, Introduction
"Ah, yes! I wrote 'The Purple Cow'—
I'm sorry now I wrote it!
But I can tell you anyhow,
I'll kill you if you quote it!"
I'm sorry now I wrote it!
But I can tell you anyhow,
I'll kill you if you quote it!"
— Gelett Burgess
"I hate quotation. Tell me what you know."
Ben Franklin: Treason is a word invented by winners as an excuse for hanging the losers.
John Adams: I have better things to do than stand here listening to you quote yourself.
Ben Franklin: No, that was a new one!
John Adams: I have better things to do than stand here listening to you quote yourself.
Ben Franklin: No, that was a new one!
— 1776
"A facility for quotation covers the absence of original thought."
