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| Genre/Form: | Aphorisms and Proverbs |
|---|---|
| Material Type: | Internet resource |
| Document Type: | Book, Internet Resource |
| All Authors / Contributors: |
Fred R Shapiro |
| ISBN: | 0300107986 9780300107982 9780300107982 |
| OCLC Number: | 66527213 |
| Description: | xxiv, 1067 p. : ports. ; 25 cm. |
| Contents: | Advertising slogans -- Anonymous -- Anonymous (Latin) -- Ballads -- Film lines -- Folk and anonymous songs -- Modern proverbs -- Nursery rhymes -- Political slogans -- Proverbs -- Radio catchphrases -- Sayings -- Television catchphrases. |
| Responsibility: | edited by Fred R. Shapiro ; foreword by Joseph Epstein. |
| More information: |
Abstract:
Contains more than 12,000 famous quotations, arranged alphabetically. This volume focuses on American quotations and its inclusion of items not only from literary and historical sources but also from popular culture, sports, computers, science, politics, law, and the social sciences.
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WorldCat User Reviews (2)
The Best Quotations Reference
A good quotations collection will give the definitive wording of quotations, provide information as to the quotations' sources and eliminate spurious sources, and be interesting enough to read or browse in its own right, even when no particular quotation is sought. The Yale Book of Quotations does all...
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A good quotations collection will give the definitive wording of quotations, provide information as to the quotations' sources and eliminate spurious sources, and be interesting enough to read or browse in its own right, even when no particular quotation is sought. The Yale Book of Quotations does all of these things, and it does them better than its nearest competitors (Bartlett's Familiar Quotations and The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations). The Yale Book of Quotations is the first new comprehensive collection in many years, and it has benefited from a rethinking of the quotations selected, the use of modern databases to track quotations back to their origins, and comparison with those original sources to assure accuracy.The immediately noticeable difference is a selection that is more likely to appeal to a modern American audience. Bartlett's has pages of quotations from Dryden, most of which inspire neither recollection nor pleasant surprise. Yale has 12 quotations from Dryden, which is enough to include all the genuinely familiar Dryden quotations. On the other hand, Yale has 23 quotations from George W. Bush, many uttered after Bartlett's was last updated. Yale includes extensive selections of proverbs and sayings, political slogans, television catchphrases, and other familiar lines. In general, although Yale's use of literary quotations is comprehensive (there are, for example, 455 quotations from Shakespeare), the quotation selection tends to be relatively less literary and more inclined toward quotations of contemporary interest. It may be for this reason that, frankly, Yale is just a lot more fun to browse. Less dramatic, but perhaps ultimately a better indicator of usefulness, is the impressive level of research that went into compiling the Yale Book. Have you ever wondered who said "There ain't no such thing as a free lunch"? Yale cites to several authors who used versions of this line, the earliest of which ("such a thing as a 'free' lunch never existed") was in the Reno Evening Gazette on January 22, 1942. It is unlikely that such an obscure source could have been located without modern databases. It was indeed Horace Greeley who said "Go West, young man"; Yale spends a quarter of a page discussing this quotation, which it notes is one of the great examples of the prevalence of misinformation about famous quotations (both Bartlett's and Oxford get it wrong). The Yale Book of Quotations offers a level of scholarship and reliability that is simply not otherwise available.
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But Who Said It First? And What Exactly Did They Say?
“I really didn’t say everything I said.” Maybe not, but Yogi Berra really said that, and it’s here in “The Yale Book of Quotations” with 11,999 other good ones, drawn from some 3200 spokespersons, statesmen, saints, and singers: Du Bois and Dickens and W. C. Fields, Dorothy Parker and Oscar and Sappho,...
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“I really didn’t say everything I said.” Maybe not, but Yogi Berra really said that, and it’s here in “The Yale Book of Quotations” with 11,999 other good ones, drawn from some 3200 spokespersons, statesmen, saints, and singers: Du Bois and Dickens and W. C. Fields, Dorothy Parker and Oscar and Sappho, Paine and Plato and Johnny Rotten, as well as that mother of invention, Anonymous. (See “Political Slogans.”)The heroic Fred R. Shapiro, abetted by experts and volunteers, offers pinpoint citations for every variety of quote, from the erudite---“Correct English is the slang of prigs” (p. 233)---to the airhead: “[I]f you are killed, you have lost a very important part of your life” (p. 708). Again and again this freshly researched compendium reveals the earliest source and precise wording of many a modern catchphrase. Did Nietzsche actually assert that, “Whatever does not kill me makes me stronger”? If Voltaire didn’t claim, “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it”---and he didn’t---who did? The ingenious Keyword Index enables you to find out. (See Tallentyre 1, p. 744.) To learn that “The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose” is not from Scripture, as some assume, but “The Merchant of Venice” took just three seconds.Yale has lavished this thousand-page project with superb design, stylish typefaces, and good paper; yet the book is not heavy for its size, and it lies flat wherever opened. Thumbnail photos gladden many entries (the one of Mae West will startle most readers), and a characteristically sparkish foreword by editor and essayist Joseph Epstein only adds to “value for money.” In “Wuthering Heights” Merle Oberon cries, “Bring me back the world!” (See “Film Lines.”) Ladies and gentlemen and others, here it is.
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