1 14 2 15 16 17 18 7 The art of quotation requires more delicacy Comme quelqu'un pourroit dire de moy, que in the practice than those conceive who can see j'ay seulement faict icy un amas de fleurs esnothing more in a quotation than an extract. trangieres, n'y ayant fourny du mien que le filet ISAAC D'ISRAELI-Curiosities of Literature. à les lier. Quotation. As one might say of me that I have only made here a collection of other people's flowOne may quote till one com piles. ers, having provided nothing of my own but ISAAC D'ISRAELI—Curiosities of Literature. the cord to binu them together. Quotation. MONTAIGNE-Essays. Bk. III. Ch. XII. 3 (See also Eliot) The wisdom of the wise and the experience of ages may be preserved by QUOTATION. I have seen books made of things ISAAC D'ISRAELI--Curiosities of Literature. neither studied nor ever understood . . . the Quotation. author contenting himself for his own part, to have cast the plot and projected the design of A book which hath been culled from the flow it, and by his industry to have bound up the ers of all books. fagot of unknown provisions; at least the ink GEORGE ELIOT—The Spanish Gypsy. Bk. II. and paper his own. This may be said to be a 5 (See also MONTAIGNE) buying or borrowing, and not a making or comA great man quotes bravely, and will not draw piling of a book. on his invention when his memory serves him MONTAIGNE—Essays. Bk. III. Ch. XII. with a word as good. EMERSON-Letters and Social Aims. Quota Nor suffers Horace more in wrong translations tion and Originality. By wits, than critics in as wrong quotations. POPE-Essay on Criticism. Pt. III. L. 104. 6 By necessity, by proclivity, and by delight, we quote. We quote not only books and prov He ranged his tropes, and preached up patience, Backed his opinion with quotations. erbs, but arts, sciences, religion, customs, and PRIOR-Paulo Purganti and his Wife. L. 143. laws; nay, we quote temples and houses, tables and chairs by imitation. EMERSON—Letters and Social Aims. Quota Always to verify your references. tion and Originality. REV. DR. ROUTH-to Dean Burgon. Nov. 29, 1847. See VERY REV. JOHN BURGONNext to the originator of a good sentence is Lives of Twenty Good Men. “Reference" the first quoter of it. in ed. of 1891; “quotation” in earlier ed. EMERSON—Letters and Social Aims. Quotation and Originality. The little honesty existing among authors is (See also BAYLE, LOWELL) to be seen in the outrageous way in which they misquote from the writings of others. We are as much informed of a writer's genius SCHOPENHAUER-On Auhorship. by what he selects as by what he originates. EMERSON--Letters and Social Aim3. Quota They had been at a great feast of ianguages, tion and Originality. and stolen the scraps. Love's Labour's Lost. Act V. Sc. 1. L. 39. Every quotation contributes something to the stability or enlargement of the language. The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. SAMUEL JOHNSON—Preface to Dictionary. Merchant of Venice. Act I. Sc. 3. L. 99. Classical quotation is the parole of literary A forward critic often dupes us men all over the world. With sham quotations peri hupsos, SAMUEL JOHNSON—Remark to Wilkes. (1781) And if we have not read Longinus, Will magisterially outshine us. C'est souvent hasarder un bon mot et vouloir Then, lest with Greek he over-run ye, le perdre que de le donner pour sien. Procure the book for love or money, A good saying often runs the risk of being Translated from Boileau's translation, thrown away when quoted as the speaker's And quote quotation on quotation. SWIFT On Poetry. LA BRUYÈRE—Les Caractères. II. I am but a gatherer and disposer of other 'Twas not an Age ago since most of our Books men's stuff. were nothing but Collections of Latin Quota SIR HENRY WOTTON—Preface to the Elements tions; there was not above a line or two of of Architecture. French in a Page. LA BRUYÈRE—The Character or Manners of To patchwork learn'd quotations are allied, the Present Age. Ch. XV. Of the Pulpit. Both strive to make our poverty our pride. YOUNG—Love of Fame. Satire I. Though old the thought and oft exprest, 'Tis his at last who says it best. Some, for renown, on scraps of learning dote, LOWELL-For an Autograph. St. 1. And think they grow immortal as they quote. (See also EMERSON) YOUNG-Love of Fame. Satire I. L. 89. 19 8 20 9 21 10 22 11 OW. 23 12 24 13 25 I know Sir John will go, though he was sure it would rain cats and dogs. SWIFT—Polite Conversation. Dialogue II. 3 14 She waits for me, my lady Earth, Smiles and waits and sighs; Then take her by surprise. April. In a never-ending sheet! How it soaks the passer's feet! How it rumples up the lawn! From darkness until dawn. ROSSITER JOHNSON—Rhyme of the Rain. LONGFELLOW-An April Day. 16 And, lo! in the dark east, expanded high, The rainbow brightens to the setting Sun. BEATTIE-The Minstrel. Bk. I. St. 30. 17 5 "Tis sweet to listen as the night winds creep From leaf to leaf; 'tis sweet to view on high The rainbow, based on ocean, span the sky. BYRON—Don Juan. Canto I. St. 122. 18 6 Triumphal arch, that fill'st the sky CAMPBELL—To the Rainbow. And the hooded clouds, like friars, Year. St. 4. 19 7 Over her hung a canopy of state, GILES FLETCHER—The Rainbow. L. 33. 20 O beautiful rainbow;--all woven of light! MRS. SARAH J. HALE—Poems. 9 21 22 It is not raining rain to me, It's raining daffodils; Wild flowers on distant hills. in Harper's Mag. May, 1901. Erroneously (See also Eliot under ROSE) God loves an idle rainbow, No less than laboring seas. RALPH HODGSON--Three Poems. II. There was an awful rainbow once in heaven; We know her woof, her texture; she is given In the dull catalogue of common things. Philosophy will clip an Angel's wings. KEATS-Lamia, Pt. II. L. 231. 10 23 He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass. Psalms. LXXII. 6. Pride of the dewy morning, The swain's experienced eye From thee takes timely warning, 1 That he that readeth it may run over it. Rendering in the Vulgate. (See also COWPER, TENNYSON) 12 But truths on which depends our main concern, (See also HABAKKUK) Books have always a secret influence on the understanding; we cannot at pleasure obliterate ideas: he that reads books of science, though without any desire fixed of improvement, will grow more knowing; he that entertains himself with moral or religious treatises, will imperceptibly advance in goodness; the ideas which are often offered to the mind, will at last find a lucky moment when it is disposed to receive them. SAMUEL JOHNSON—The Adventurer. No. 137. 3 The delight of opening a new pursuit, or a new course of reading, imparts the vivacity and novelty of youth even to old age. İSAAC D'ISRAELI–Literary Character of Men of Genius. Ch. XXII. I like to be beholden to the great metropolitan English speech, the sea which receives tributaries from every region under heaven. I should as soon think of swimming across the Charles river when I wish to go to Boston, as of reading all my books in originals, when I have them rendered for me in my mother tongue. EMERSON—Essays. Books. 4 If we encountered a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he read. EMERSON—Letters and Social Aims. Quota tion and Originality. 5 Our high respect for a well-read man is praise enough of literature. EMERSON-Letters and Social Aims. Quota tion and Originality. My early and invincible love of reading, * I would not exchange for the treasures of India. GIBBON—Memoirs. 7 The sagacious reader who is capable of reading between these lines what does not stand written in them, but is nevertheless implied, will be able to form some conception. GOETHE-Autobiography. Bk. XVIII. Truth and Beauty. 6 8 19 Zwar sind sie an das Beste nicht gewöhnt, ter, But then, alas! they've read an awful deal. GOETHE-Faust. Vorspiel auf dem Theater. L. 13. BAYARD TAYLOR's trans. Seria cum possim, quod delectantia malim Thou art the cause, () reader, of my dwelling on lighter topics, when I would rather handle serious ones. MARTIAL-Epigrams. V. 16. 1. 20 9 In a polite age almost every person becomes a reader, and receives more instruction from the Press than the Pulpit. GOLDSMITH—The Citizen of the World. Letter LXXV. 10 The first time I read an excellent book, it is to me just as if I had gained a new friend. When I read over a book I have perused before, it resembles the meeting with an old one. GOLDSMITH—The Citizen of the World. Letter LXXXIII. His classical reading is great: he can quote Kant heart, And his taste is refined. OWEN MEREDITH (Lord Lytton) — Lucile. Canto II. Pt. IV. Who reads Incessantly, and to his reading brings not A spirit and judgment equal or superior, (And what he brings what need he elsewhere seek?) Uncertain and unsettled still remains, Deep versed in books and shallow in himself, 21 |