One of the few thing that I collect is quotes.
You know: Things people say and write.
Some people collect stamps. Others, classic automobiles. Children sometimes gather examples of fallen leaves for grade-school projects.
Quotations of interest to me can be anything from a conversation overheard in a restaurant to a 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. One of the key challenges that I have personally found is in real-time capture (once having grabbed a napkin and crayon to get wording down precisely heard before memory dissipated).
Another is acquired utterances consolidated and organized.
Imagine finding a single sort of container appropriate for cassette tapes, web clippings, iPhone snapshots wisdom previously tattooed on your forearm, and 5¼” floppy disks. Not to mention maintaining along with all of the above, all the various legacy machines (in good working order) still needed for ongoing “playback.”
I’m not against drawing from Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations. But that’s mere gateway drug for the true connoisseur.
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. Let’s call these “meta-quotes.”
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
rev January 7, 2026