Link to my Blog “I Collect Quotes” Category
Among other things, I collect quotes.
You know: Things people say and write.
Some people collect stamps. Others, classic automobiles. Children sometimes collect leaves for grade school projects.
It can be something from a conversation overheard in a restaurant or comment by a friend. A scene of dialogue from a movie. Maybe it’s written on a roadside billboard.
Not surprisingly, out-of-pocket costs can be minimal. I’ve found the one of the key challenges to be in real-time capture (once grabbing a napkin and crayon to get wording down as I heard it before memory dissipated). The other is keeping quotes consolidated and organized.
Imagine finding common space to bring together cassette tapes, web clippings, paper transcriptions from quotations originally written on your forearm, and 5¼” floppy disks.
I’m not against drawing from Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations. But you’re not gonna get the full context of Shakespeare if that’s as far as you go for a phrase.
My two favorite quotes on the subject of collecting quotes are what people say in response to the idea when I tell ’em about it.
How can you collect something that’s just out there?
How do you keep people from stealing your quotes?
Oh, my—.
What’s here on this website draws from that collection. Not scientifically, thematically, or with any particular intent at balance. Rather, these are selections made at times when content available and opportunity to post it were aligned.
Sometimes with brief comment and even extended digression into my own further reflections as prompted.
Other times, simply left to speak for themselves.
— Dell Deaton
February 1, 2017