WIST Quotations

Doctor Who (1963) -- 22×07 “The Two Doctors,” Part 1 (1985-02-16) [w. Robert Holmes]

Dave — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 18:01:08 +0000

THE DOCTOR: Well, what’s the use of a good quotation if you can’t change it?

Doctor Who (1963-1989) British science fiction television series, original run (BBC)
22×07 “The Two Doctors,” Part 1 (1985-02-16) [w. Robert Holmes]
(Source)

(Source (Video)). Given after Peri notes a quotation the Doctor just attributed to Rassilon was actually Samuel Johnson. This line is from the Sixth Doctor (the Second Doctor being the other Doctor in the episode).

Poole, Mary Pettibone -- A Glass Eye at a Keyhole, “Excess Prophets” (1938)

Dave — Thu, 05 Oct 2023 22:39:17 +0000

The next best thing to being clever is being able to quote some one who is.

Mary Pettibone Poole (fl. 1930s) American aphorist
A Glass Eye at a Keyhole, “Excess Prophets” (1938)
(Source)

Skeat, Walter William -- Notes and Queries, 6th Series, vol. 9 (1884-06-21)

Dave — Mon, 07 Feb 2022 20:06:21 +0000

I protest, for about the hundredth time, against the slipshod method of quoting a mere author’s name, without any indication of the work of that author in which the alleged quotation may be found. Let us have accurate quotations and exact references, wherever such are to be found. […] A quotation without a reference is like a geological specimen of unknown locality.

Walter William Skeat (1835-1912) British philologist and cleric
Notes and Queries, 6th Series, vol. 9 (1884-06-21)
(Source)

Coleridge, Hartley -- Biographia Borealis: or, Lives of Distinguished Northerns, “Roger Ascham” (1833)

Dave — Thu, 12 May 2016 16:42:22 +0000

Why are not more gems from our early prose writers scattered over the country by the periodicals? Selections are so far from preventing the study of the entire authors that they promote it. Who could read the extracts which Lamb has given from Fuller, without wishing to read more of the old Prebendary? But great old books of the great old authors are not in every body’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 neither time nor means to get more. Let every bookworm, when, in any fragrant, scarce old tome, he discovers a sentence, a story, an illustration, that does his heart good, hasten to give it the widest circulation that newspapers and magazines, penny and halfpenny, can afford.

Hartley Coleridge (1796-1849) English poet, biographer, essayist, teacher
Biographia Borealis: or, Lives of Distinguished Northerns, “Roger Ascham” (1833)
(Source)

Speaking of the practice of including brief extracts -- quotations -- from famous authors in magazines and newspapers to fill up columns or create a break between stories. Ironically, this extracted quotation -- slightly paraphrased -- was widely circulated in the mid-late 19th and early 20th Century misattributed to his father, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, or simply labeled as "Coleridge" without citation, leading to the same confusion.

Usually quoted more succinctly as: "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 neither time nor means to get more. Let every bookworm, when in any fragrant, scarce old tome he discovers a sentence, a story, an illustration, that does his heart good, hasten to give it."

Aaronovitch, Ben -- Whispers Under Ground (2012)

Dave — Wed, 23 Dec 2015 18:55:19 +0000

“Can you hear that?” asked Kumar. We stopped and listened. Just on the cusp of hearing I detected a rhythmic pounding, more a vibration in the concrete than a sound. “Drums,” I said, and then because I couldn’t resist it, “Drums in the deep.”

Ben Aaronovitch (b. 1964) British author
Whispers Under Ground (2012)

Van Loon, Hendrik Willem -- (Attributed)

Dave — Fri, 11 Dec 2015 16:21:23 +0000

Somewhere in the world there is an epigram for every dilemma.

Hendrik Willem van Loon (1882-1944) Dutch-American historian and journalist
(Attributed)

Vauvenargues, Luc de -- Reflections and Maxims [Réflexions et maximes] (1746) [tr. Lee (1903)]

Dave — Thu, 12 Dec 2013 13:29:23 +0000

When we are convinced of some great truths, and feel our convictions keenly, we must not fear to express it, although others have said it before us. Every thought is new when an author expresses it in a manner peculiar to himself.

Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues (1715-1747) French moralist, essayist, soldier
Reflections and Maxims [Réflexions et maximes] (1746) [tr. Lee (1903)]

Bovee, Christian Nestell -- Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, Vol. 2 (1862)

Dave — Wed, 27 Nov 2013 14:00:36 +0000

At all events, the next best thing to being witty one’s self, is to be able to quote another’s wit.

Christian Nestell Bovee (1820-1904) American epigrammatist, writer, publisher
Intuitions and Summaries of Thought, Vol. 2 (1862)

Bierce, Ambrose -- “Quotation,” The Devil’s Dictionary (1911)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 18:00:00 +0000

QUOTATION, n. The act of repeating erroneously the words of another. The words erroneously repeated.

Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
“Quotation,” The Devil’s Dictionary (1911)
(Source)

Originally published in the "Cynic's Word Book" column in the New York American (1906-06-29).