There ought to be something about computers and artificial intelligence [in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations]. Surely somebody somewhere said something memorable.

Television, despite its enormous presence, turns out to have added pitifully few lines to the communal memory.

Quotations have always been supremely effective rhetorical devices, instruments of one-upmanship, ways of supporting any position under the sun with borrowed or stolen authority.

I don't mean to be rude—" he began, in a tone that threatened rudeness in every syllable."Yet, sadly, accidental rudeness occurs alarmingly often, " Dumbledore finished the sentence gravely.

I wanted to survive—not for my kind, but for trust, for friendship, for another being. (Eric)

Maybe right and wrong did not move, but understanding of them did. The wrenching pain of walking the same path, even for a short space, tore away the willingness to judge.

Dogs are animals that poop in public and you're supposed to pick it up. After a week of doing this, you've got to ask yourself, "Who's the real master in this relationship?"

The weapons-violence hypothesis is far too simplistic a basis on which to base sound public policy.

If people liked your singing well enough, if you were special to them, then you never left their minds throughout all of the years.

How precious a book is in light of the offering, in the light of the one who has the privilege of this offering. The library tells you of this offering

Life is too short to rush around and be too busy for your kids.

I feel that if I kept it secret it might grow in my mind (as poisonous things grow in the dark) and take its place with the other terrible thoughts that gnaw me

We all possess, like it or not, the people we know, and are possessed by them in turn.