I read part of it all the way through.
-Samuel Goldwyn
This morning when I sat down to eat my egg scramble, I opened the Fourteenth Edition of Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations, which some of my children thoughtfully gave me last Christmas. As I read some very pithy, humorous or wise sayings, I immediately began to think of how I might use them in a blog post sometime. One after another made me wonder this, and I soon realized that it’s not likely to happen. So I will just share a few random quotes here all at once, out of any context — that is, the context in which they first appeared.
Truth exists, only falsehood has to be invented.
-Georges Braque
This “enlarged edition” I have before me is copyright 1968, so it includes many entries that I never saw in the older edition I owned for a brief while. The very first was published in 1855, and the current version is the 19th, from 2022.
Bartlett said, upon coming out with the 4th Edition, that “…it is not easy to determine in all cases the degree of familiarity that may belong to phrases and sentences which present themselves for admission; for what is familiar to one class of readers may be quite new to another.”
Indeed. I wonder what he would think of the challenge of assembling such a book in this era, when many people have not learned to appreciate the beauty of good writing, nor do they have a collective familiarity with a body of it, as previous generations might have had, as with the Bible or Shakespeare, for example.
Thus we play the fools with the time, and the spirits of the wise sit in the clouds and mock us.
-William Shakespeare, Henry IV
John Bartlett began his project when he managed the University Book Store in Cambridge, Massachussetts, by writing quotations in a commonplace book. He oversaw the publication of nine editions before his death in 1905. The next editions, in the 20th century, had several different editors, but at first they continued in what was considered the “ideologically inclusive spirit of the first fifteen editions.”
It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations. Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations is an admirable work, and I studied it intently. The quotations when engraved upon the memory give you good thoughts. They also make you anxious to read the authors and look for more.
-Winston Churchill
Hearkening to a tradition that is no more, it is unsurprising that Bartlett’s could not endure as it was, and critics have pointed out the ways in which it has devolved, as the culture from which it draws has fragmented. My public library system has the latest edition, but I don’t plan to borrow it.
This be my pilgrimage and goal,
Daily to march and find
The secret phrases of the soul,
The evangels of the mind.
-John Drinkwater
My breakfast is long over, and though I would like to keep leafing through Bartlett’s to share more quotes with you, I must go on to other things now. Whatever time of day it is that you are reading this, I hope something here has been a nourishing snack for your own soul.
Women are wiser than men because they know less and understand more.
-James Stephens
Gladsome Lights 
“Women are wiser than men because they know less and understand more.
-James Stephens“
This one stood out to me. I think our screaming world likes to pit women against men as if life is a battle between the two.
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I loved your post, Gretchen, and I enjoyed the thought of you enjoying a few quotes with your breakfast. A good pairing, I’d say, food for the body as well as the soul. Today I am drawn to the Churchill quote, these lines particularly: “…The quotations when engraved upon the memory give you good thoughts. They also make you anxious to read the authors and look for more.” I don’t know how many times I have gone in search of other things the authors wrote after reading one of their pithy sayings.
Thank you! Wishing you a beautiful first week of September.
Brenda
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I am familiar with this book as I was able to check it out of my local library. This reminds me I should ask for a copy of this book for Christmas! It is a great resource for us who love and appreciate quotes.
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You might want to ask for an edition that is not too “current.”
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I hope you share more quotes here and there. A good quote has such a healing affect, don’t you think?
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Well, if it’s telling the truth, it can lead to healing eventually. Maybe they all contribute to a storehouse of remedies ❤
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I read part of it all the way through. That’s me when a book is kind of interesting but goes on a bit too long. I read parts of it until I reach the end.
Bartlett wrote many quotations in a Commonplace book. I have to date filled 4 Commonplace books and now that I’m getting rid of so much I wonder if my children will want them. I must find out.
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Oh, GM, even if no one seems interested right now, DON’T get rid of them! They don’t take up much space, and some great-granchild or great-great grandchild may treasure them one day. They are important historical artifacts ❤
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It seems that writing — good, clear writing that resonates and communicates perfectly — is falling out of our world. So many books that are recommended by literary friends, book-loving friends, end up filling me with disappointment after a couple of pages. There are a group of about a dozen writers that I love to read. Am I too selective? A reading snob? Does this decline of books correspond to a loss of appreciation for poetry too, in our culture?
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I’m sure it does, Mary Kathryn. I would love for you to write a blog post about the dozen writers that you like to read and reread, at this stage of your life. I have another English teacher friend who told me ten years ago that she never read anything written in the 21st century; I asked her recently if that is still true and she said, “Pretty much.” How about you?
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I mentioned this to a friend just the other day. I told her I was rather disappointed when I read the first 2 pages of a Louise Penny novel, recommended by a friend. When Penny used the word “thrust” four times on the first 2 pages, I knew I could not read her. Is that ridiculous of me?
Anyway, I told my friend that I didn’t think any of my favorite writers (the ones I read) are still living. I do read Alexander McCall Smith sometimes, and he’s 76. But I dislike the sloppiness of contemporary writing. The writing all sounds the same to me: overdone, self-aware, and a bit garish. It lacks elegance. I should check whether any of the others are alive.
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I have quit reading for similar reasons, M.K.! Life is too short to fool around with such writers.
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