The Quotations FAQ
You will find quotes from movies, plays, books, television shows, and lectures. There are quips from parties, orations from great literature, slices from computer manuals and
source code, humor from around the globe, famous last words, and quotes about quotes. There are quotations from Monty Python, The Princess Bride, Ronald Reagan, Star Trek, Jack Handey, Mark Twain, and Shakespeare. There are quotations about UFOs, the devil, sex, money, cats, music, and anything else. Anything goes.
Bookmark this Article
A quotation is a short, memorable saying by someone famous, tagged
with an attribution. This is an ``alternative'' newsgroup and you
should feel free to post anything you like here. However, there
seems to be a mild consensus about what is and is not a quote.
Posts that fit under this definition will be stored in the
Quotations Archive.
* Quotes should be short. Five lines (400 bytes) is a pretty hefty
quotation. Six lines is really an excerpt. This size limitation
applies only to the quote itself. A description of the author or
the context of the quote can be longer.
* Quotes should be exact. If you are not sure of your quote, please
say so. That would make it a paraphrasing. Someone else will
probably be able to provide the correct phrasing.
* Quotes should have an attribution. Possible exceptions are quotes
that are well known, but anonymous. Please give the name of the
author, the source (book, magazine, movie, lecture), and the
year. It would be great to have birth/death years and profession.
For example,
``The wise learn many things from their enemies.'' -
Aristophanes, 450-385 B.C., Birds, 414 B.C. Aristophanes
lived in Ancient Greece and was the greatest poet of Old
Attic Comedy.
* Quotes should be from someone famous. The term "famous" has many
meanings, of course - In this context, it refers to someone who
(a) is well known in his/her field, (b) is known to the general
public, or (c) has received media exposure for some reason.
* Quotes should mean something. If your quote needs to be put in
context, then by all means describe the circumstances surrounding
the quote. For example, Star Trek quotes often benefit from
having a two line synopsis of the episode:
``Sir, I MUST protest. I am NOT a merry man.'' -
Lieutenant Worf, Star Trek: The Next Generation,
``Q-Pid''. The omnipotent entity Q has magicked the Star
Trek crew into a Robin Hood scene.
* Quotes shouldn't be one-liner jokes or cliches. ``Real musicians
don't die, they just decompose.'' is not a quote. There is no one
to attribute. Bathroom graffiti, bumper stickers, fortune
cookies, the Diet Coke jingle, and many other common themes fit
in a small package. But even if they are funny that doesn't make
them quotations.
Quotes involving movies and television often give the names of
the characters or the actors, even though the quote was really
written by a professional writer. In general, give the one of the
three that is most famous. Giving the real writer would always be
nice.
If you have a huge list of your favorite quotes, please take the
time to categorize them and attribute them. Don't just post an
unorganized list.
Subject: 4 The Quotations Archive
All the quotations that fit the guidelines are stored at a publicly
available ftp site: wilma.cs.brown.edu:pub/alt.quotations/Archive.
In the future there will be an organized index system. Right now,
just the raw postings are available.
The quotes are grouped primarily by subject, but there are indexes
by author, keyword, type of source (movie, play, book), and
meta-subject (humor is a meta-subject, humor-about-cars is a
subject).
Movie and television quotes have a tendency to mean nothing to
people who haven't seen the show, and bring back fond memories to
people who have. That doesn't make them real quotations, but since
they are so popular, a part of the archive will be set aside for
these media related quotes.
The index is labeled either ``exact'', or ``incomplete''. If you
can give the exact wording to a quote marking ``incomplete'',
please write jgm@cs.brown.edu. We are trying to keep paraphrasing
to a minimum.
Here is an example of how to post a quote to alt.quotations if you
want to make it easy to archive. All the lines have little keywords
so that the quote can be automatically processed into the archive.
If you follow this format, you will make life much easier for me.
Please note that the quotation is clearly marked as separate from
the introduction with the ``Quote:'' tag.
Newsgroups: alt.quotations
From: drwho@athena.mit.edu (Dr. Who)
Subject: Tennyson on love, Bacon on fear
My favorite quote I discovered in high school. It still rings a chord
with me. Anyone know any other good Tennyson quotes?
Quote:
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.
Author: Alfred Lord Tennyson, (1809-1892)
Ref: Im Memoriam, 1850, line 27, stanza 4.
Keywords: love, exact
% Im Memoriam was written in memory of Arthur Henry Hallam.
% Tennyson was an English poet. By the middle of the 19th century he
% was firmly established as the voice of the age, and was made Poet
% Laureate in 1850.
I don't know the year of the book on the next one, so I've marked it
incomplete. I think the original quote is in Latin. Anybody know
whether this is Francis or Roger Bacon?
Quote:
Dolendi modus, timendi non item.
(to suffering there is a limit; to fearing, none.)
Author: Bacon
Ref: Of Seditions and Troubles
Keywords: fear, incomplete
-The Doctor
----- Department of Bat Radioendoscopy ---- drwho@athena.mit.edu ------
------------------- ``He who laughs last laughs best''--------------------
Basically, the quotation begins anywhere after ``Quote:''. The
author and birth/death information is listed after ``Author:'' and
the source is listed after ``Ref:''. You can put some keywords
after ``Keywords:'' if you like. Whether the quote is exact or a
incomplete should go here. If you want to add comments about the
quote for context, or to explain who the author is or what the
sources is, put a '%' at the beginning of each line to indicate a
comment.
At the end of the comments, the text is ignored unless a second
``Quote:'' is found, at which point a new quotation begins.
If you're REALLY unsure of your quote, or if you don't know who
said it, don't include these headers at all; just ask about it, and
most likely someone will respond with an exact quote.
For now, I have been hand parsing these files. As soon as we can, I
will get help with this large task. Sorry for all the bureaucracy,
but things will run more smoothly and better for everyone if we
place tags on the text that let me partially automate the process.
Subject: 5 How to Help with the Quotations Archive
Jon is in search of ``Bibliophiles'' who would act as the Oracle
Priests do for rec.humor.oracle. Bibliophiles would be emailed a
portion of the quotes posted to alt.quotations. They would select
the ones appropriate for archiving and email them back to me in the
properly formatted form. With many bibilophiles, this would not be
too much effort. Please send mail to jgm@cs.brown.edu if you would
like to help.
Our current Quotations Bibliophiles are Jonathan Monsarrat
(jgm@cs.brown.edu) and Michael Moncur (mgm@world.std.com).
Subject: 6 Other FTP sites
There are no other ftp sites for quotations that we know of.
Subject: 7 Books
This is a bibliography of quotation books. If you have a favorite
book of quotations, or any at all, and can add to this list, please
send email to mgm@world.std.com. See below for more specific
instructions.
The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
Published: Original, 1941. Third edition, 1980.
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Editor/Author: Oxford University Press
Scope: All quotations, chosen based on familiarity.
This is one of the "Big Two" quotation books. Any fan of
quotations should have it available. Like all quotation books, it
is by no means comprehensive, but it attempts to be, and is at
least diverse. Not a book to be read cover to cover, but a good
reference for looking up particular quotes. Quotes are arranged
by author. Also includes a LARGE (approx. 300 pages) and
comprehensive subject index.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
Published: (?)
Publisher: Bartlett (?)
Editor/Author: (?)
Scope: All quotations, chosen based on familiarity.
This is the other of the "Big Two." We don't have it at this
point, so we can't comment specifically. We'd appreciate hearing
from somebody who has it.
The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Quotations
Published: 1991
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Editor/Author: Tony Augarde
Scope: 20th-century quotations, chosen based on familiarity.
A "modern" version of the Oxford Dictionary, centered on quotes
by people who were "still alive after 1900." As such, the
quotations in this volume may be more relevant to today's
concerns. It is shorter than the original Oxford, probably due to
the absence of Shakespeare and Biblical quotations.
The Dictionary of Humorous Quotations
Published: 1949. Was still in print in 1989.
Publisher: Doubleday, originally. 1989 edition - Dorsett Press.
Editor/Author: Evan Esar
Scope: Humorous quotations, chosen by author.
This is one of the many quotation dictionaries that are basically
the collected "favorite quotes" of the author. It is arranged by
author, and includes a subject index.
The Portable Curmudgeon
Published: 1987
Publisher: NAL Penguin Inc. (US), New American Library of Canada
Ltd (CA)
Editor/Author: John Winokur
Scope: Cynical, mostly humorous. Chosen by author.
These are "outrageously irreverent" quotations from people the
author considers Curmudgeons (Cynical, irascible, cantankerous).
It is organized by subject, with additional sections devoted to
frequently-contributing curmudgeons (W.C. Fields, Dorothy Parker,
Fran Lebowitz, and Groucho Marx to name a few.) No index. A book
intended to be read cover-to-cover. [ NOTE: There are two sequels
to this work, "A Curmudgeon's garden of Love" and "The Portable
Curmudgeon Redux". Information on these two would be appreciated,
as we don't currently have them. ]
The 637 Best Things Anybody Ever Said
Published: 1982
Publisher: Fawcett Crest / Ballantine (Random House)
Editor/Author: Robert Byrne
Scope: Chosen by author.
Robert Byrne has compiled a volume of quotations which he finds
to possess "insight, surprise, wit, pith, or punch." No attempt
is made to be comprehensive. The quotes are arranged in
"sequential" order, meaning that they vaguely relate to the ones
around them. It does include an index by author and subject,
though. This book, and its sequels, are my personal favorite
collections.
The Other 637 Best Things Anybody Ever Said
Published: 1984
Publisher: Ballantine (Random House)
Editor/Author: Robert Byrne
Scope: Chosen by author
Sequel to the above work. Same concept, new quotations.
The Third-and Possibly the Best-637 Best Things Anybody Ever Said
Published: 1986
Publisher: Ballantine (Random House)
Editor/Author: Robert Byrne
Scope: Chosen by author
Yet another 637.
The Fourth-and by far the Most Recent-637 Best Things Anybody Ever
Said
Published: 1990
Publisher: Atheneum/Macmillan Publishing Company
Editor/Author: Robert Byrne
Scope: Chosen by author
The cover says that Robert Byrne "Just can't seem to stop", which
seems true. It's been three years, though - Let's hope there's a
fifth volume coming. All four of these are of equal value in my
opinion.
This list is by no means comprehensive, but I'd like it to be. If
you have any books of quotations (any subject or theme), please
send me the following information so that it can be added to this
list:
* Full Title
* Publication date (original printing and most recent, if possible)
* Publisher (and distributor)
* Editor or Author
* Scope (theme: i.e. Humorous, Patriotic, Feminist, etc.)
* Library of Congress and/or ISBN numbers if available and a brief
summary. (3-6 lines)
This FAQ is copyright (C) 1993 by Jonathan Monsarrat and Michael
Moncur. Permission is granted to freely edit and distribute as long
as this copyright notice is included.