---

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.

---

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.

---

Some for renown, on scraps of learning dote,
And think they grow immortal as they quote.

---

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

---

Next to the originator of a good sentence is the first quoter of it.

---

There is not less wit nor less invention in applying rightly a thought one finds in a book, than in being the first author of that thought.

---

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.

---

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

---

He wrapped himself in quotations- as a beggar would enfold himself in the purple of Emperors.

---

A quotation in a speech, article or book is like a rifle in the hands of an infantryman. It speaks with authority.

---