For some people, quotations hold a certain appeal. I suspect that I am one such person. Such is the appeal that there have been countless collections of quotations published. I certainly possess some of them. We rarely, if ever, ask how publishers find these books to be commercially viable, yet they do. A market for them must exist. Now mobile apps and even whole websites are devoted exclusively to brief excerpts of what other people - not least those now dead - have said. A quotation is typically little more than the verbatim repetition of what somebody else has uttered. Attached is the name of the person who wrote or spoke this gem. Even if we have never heard of that person, we assume they have a reputation for wisdom or some other commendable human attribute. Rarely does one encounter a quotation from a notoriously bad or incompetent person. In this respect, a quotation is trading upon that person’s reputation. Because of this, a quotation becomes more than the words alone.
Extensive blocks of text expressing a carefully crafted argument are almost unheard of as quotations. Yet, reputations result from such work. Significantly, the emphasis is very much on briefness. The reader wants a quick dose of instant wisdom. Thus, quotations are typically pithy comments or sayings.
Although knowing who made a specific remark helps check accuracy and context, what the quotation is about - not the person who said it - is what matters. A quotation typically contains a single idea expressed clearly and concisely. Here, I am concerned first and foremost with those ideas. What makes a given quotation particularly appealing is the idea contained and its expression. What I then seek to do is dissect the words and the idea. If an idea is worth having, it is worth dwelling upon meticulously, looking at its implications and what may follow. That usually means seeking to express it in different ways, paraphrasing and re-wording it, expanding it and trying to make it more concise, all at the same time. It may also mean trying to express it diagrammatically instead of verbally. Given all that, does the person to whom the quotation is attributed matter? The simple answer is no - apart from giving them the credit courtesy dictates. The idea and its usefulness are what matters most.
No quotation, however elegantly put, should ever be taken at face value. We often hear somebody use a quotation with ‘As so-and-so said…’ or ‘So-and-so once said that…’ As a result, a quotation is given a certain authority because of who said it. To say that ‘so-and-so’ said it makes it definitive in some way; there is no arguing against it. (Those using quotations in this way are usually only pontificating.) Statements always require critical evaluation. (Even that one!) None of the quotations I will be using here are definitive. The person to whom the quotation is attributed is simply the person who happened to have said it. Given the time or opportunity, somebody else could have had the same idea. Somebody else may even have had the idea but never have expressed it. It is just that the person to whom the quotation is attributed happened to have said it first or more memorably. We should consider quotations as things that certain named persons have ‘suggested’, ‘proposed’, ‘pointed out’ etc. They have provided us with food for thought. They have provided brief and concise encapsulations of ideas upon which we can dwell. We can then go on to combine those ideas with our own. Finally, it is not beyond the realm of possibility that what somebody has said is so wrong that it may prompt us to think of something much better!
