The Times Quotations: From Homer to Homer Simpson Book

There are so many books of quotations about these days that it's tempting to ask why anyone needs another one. Philip Howard voices that question and answers it decisively in his introduction to this volume: "The distinctive feature of The Times Book of Quotations is that it catches the rascal quotations when they are just hatched ... here we find the wise, witty and weird sayings made yesterday by the famous and the infamous, by everyman and (that oxymoronic newspaper construct) the ordinary man." In short, it offers (relative) topicality. Helpfully, it's been able to draw on the best of The Times's Quotes of the Week.Among the 17,000 quotations there are lists of memorable play, song and film titles and advertising slogans, arranged thematically (with an index of authors at the back in case you don't want to search by theme). A quick dip reveals Jeremy Paxman declaring in 1998 that "the English way with ideas is not to kill them but to let them die of neglect" or John Major (five years before) epitomising that English mistrust of intellect, arguing that "people with vision usually do more harm than good". And why did William Whitelaw announce "I am not prepared to go about the country stirring up apathy?" The emphasis on the topical still leaves plenty of room for less recent quotes, however, such as Voltaire's "the secret of being boring is to say everything" or Oscar Wilde (prominent here as in all such collections): "Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation." From ancient Greece to the end of the last century, all ages and very many places have been raided for their verbal treasures, and the result is well worth all that effort. --David PickeringRead More