Words on Words

One good quote could be worth a book or three.

Quotation: A group of words taken from a text or speech and repeated by someone other than the original author or speaker. Synonyms include: quote, extract, cutting, clip, snippet, stanza, phrase.

Lore: a body of traditions and knowledge on a subject or held by a particular group, typically passed from person to person by word of mouth: Synonyms include: beliefs, superstitions, [passed-on] learning.

On selecting fit quotations

There is nothing so ridiculous but some philosopher has said it. (Cicero)

Quotations make a sort of soup. Among the parts that make up the soup, some parts are more liked than others. That is often how it is. The art of selecting the tasty or most nourishing parts is suggested here:

In trying to see which quotations that may contain valid and reliable outlooks, (1) take a broad look; (2) look back in time, and see whether the quotations sums up something vitally important to you, mankind, a part of mankind. The things to look for thus could be good or alarming trends, statistically supported facts of life, and other things that many in power choose to ignore. There are many such phenomena around, for the world is being exploited. So are people, in many ways. Those who work for large corporations, have taken side and hope they may profit by it in time, even in large measure. The approach may not pay. At any rate, there are higher responsibilities than catering to money-profit of the short-sighted unsustainable sorts.

Some seemingly wise sayings have opposite ones, and some have but a touch of truth in them. Spare yourself; discard them and focus on really helpful ones instead. Yet, who are they? Some tips are here:

Good words may allow your creativity to flow as long as you keep depending on things.

Quotations help us remember the simple yet profound truths that give life perspective and meaning. [Chriswell Freeman]

One good quote could be worth two books - it could be less, it could be worse.

You can enjoy the company of like minded people or that special person. Even words of such persons may assist you.

Assembling some gist

It is sound to prefer all-round correct thinking to catchy phrases or demagogy.

The material in this booklet has been culled from a number of Internet sources besides quotation collections and proverb collections in book form. There are some markers that help the presentation. Below is a little on it:

Straight (verbatim) quotations can be replaced by or complemented with renditions.

If utterances are boiled down, toned down and reassembled, trimmed sayings appear. Some of them are renditions, and others contain changes to make the ideas they contain more truthful. Further, modified or abridged statements may be interpreted this way or that, and at least one of them could suit you . . . if abridged, changed or trimmed utterances contain ideas of good worth in their own right. It could happen.

Also worth thinking about is that source utterances can be rendered or altered with more than one effect in view. One view is to form a humourous saying, for example by clippings. Another view is to make an utterance more truthful along general lines, for example by toning it down somewhat here and there, to make the utterance less bombastic, less inaccurate, even fairer.

In short, abridged statements may be of different sorts. It depends in part on the keen eye, clipping skills, and ways of modifying an original utterance.

There are many pages on the site that uses markers, such as 'abr' for abridged, made shorter. The ellipsis (three dots in a row) shows omissions. These and other common devices are often used. In addition there are additional markers in use here. All are explained on a separate page in case you need it. [The abbreviations]