Maria Edgeworth grumbled against vandals who ruined immortal works by quoting the life out of them. "How far our literature may in future suffer from these blighting swarms, will best be conceived by a glance at what they have already withered and blasted of the favourite productions of our most popular poets." Shakespeare, Milton, and Dryden, scissored, patched, and frayed.

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Categorized in : May Suffering Literature

Flatter yourself critically.

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self-respect respect

Say what you want without saying it yourself: quote. Very useful, this, sometimes lovely, and versatile, too: big thoughts in small pieces, neatly wrapped and bundled in bulk, in different flavors for different tastes.

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flavor lovely want

Quotations calcify into clichés.

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quotations

Cunning authors cut to be quoted.

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cunning cutting

Great quotation collections glean the millennia, distill essences, and battle for bragging rights about who’s bigger, who’s smarter, who’s best. Who-knows-who-said-what has a market, a history, and a hall of fame.

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bragging-rights battle essence

Quotations cause all kinds of trouble.

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causes kind trouble

Quotation lovers love rare words.

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lovers-love quotations lovers

Care for yourself enough to listen carefully to what you say to yourself.

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care enough self

At its best, flattery is truth well dressed, and it is best dressed with fine see-through fabrics. Honest flattery can caress a lover, cover up a gaffe, and muffle aggression.

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cover-ups fabric lovers

Misquotation is quotology’s swamp. Amateur quoters mix and mangle Shakespeare and Scripture. Professors gaffe and printers bungle. It’s a mess we must wade into.

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swamps wade scripture

[D]ifferent people have different quotational gravity.

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gravity different people

If you flatter yourself properly you will be better able to enjoy yourself. Stretch your joy so that others enjoy you too.

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able joy happiness

A little flattery, like a warm bath and soft towel, will let you get along with yourself, lie down with yourself, and sleep.

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compassion sleep lying

Ralph Keyes calls quotation collectors "quotographers," the men and women who gather catchwords, watchwords, war words, winged words, maxims, mottos, sayings, and quips into books of a thousand pages. Through the centuries quotation collectors have saved quotations that would otherwise be lost.

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men war book

Quotology disdains no quotations whatsoever, a duty it bears stoutly, with bloodshot eyes and sagging shelves.

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sagging eye bears

Quotologists encounter happy surprises, bright books by faded authors, treasures hidden under dust.

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encounters dust book

In phrases as brief as a breath worldly wisdom concentrates.

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worldly-wisdom breaths phrases

Like pollen on a honeybee, flattery clings to the things you tell yourself.

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pollen flattery

Flattery works like a drug.

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flattery drug

Flattery.... gets its kicks by flirting with insult and ridicule.

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flirting insult flattery