Quotations Books

This book is hillarious. Expecailly for rennies. It gives you some snappy come backs for the festival

This is a small but profound collection of Jewish thoughts on life. Hertz himself was a man of deep understanding and knowledge, a man who included here not only the thoughts of Jews about life, but that of some of the great non- Jewish thinkers on the Jewish situation.
An outstanding collection which is in no way dated by the years.

Peter Tsouras is a well-known military historian, who also has the ability to write alternative history. The breadth of his knowledge is impressive -- he can write authoritatively on topics ranging from ancient to modern. As such, he appreciates the wisdom, and folly, of the great and not so great individuals who have spoken and written pithy lines over the centuries.

This book reflects his love of military history. It ranges widely, with more than 3,500 quotations from 800-plus individuals on more than 400 topics. It also has two helpful features -- a useful index, and Tsouras tells the reader the source of the quote. I can not stress enough how helpful the latter aid is. When I write military history, I need to know where someone wrote or spoke something. So many quote books do not include this information, Tsouras and his publisher are to be commended for providing such.

Tsouras also must be commended for the topics he selects. There are those topics one would expect -- Battle, Command, Courage, Fear, Mutiny, Strategy, Victory, etc. However, with over 400 topics, the reader finds some nice, clever surprises, e.g., The Bayonet, Camp Followers, Chaplains, Contractors, Destiny, Divine Favor, Looting, Military Music, Old Soldiers, Quagmire, Sang Froid, Sic Transit Gloria Mundi, War on Terrorism, Whitehall, and Wives. I also applaud Tsouras for breaking down topics into more useful subtopics, e.g., Battle is broken down into four groups, i.e., The Cost of Battle, The Dynamics of Battle, The Human Factor, and The Purpose of Battle. Another example is Discipline, which is broken into The Effects of Discipline, Instilling Discipline, The Lack of Discipline, and The Nature of Discipline. Army, The Enemy, History, Initiative, Training (seven subtopics), Victory (eight subtopics), and War (eleven subtopics!) are some of the other categories that have convenient divisions.

If you love military history, and/or great quotations, this book is a fun read. If you write or speak on military matters, or history in general, this book is a necessary resource to always have handy.

Lebrecht gives life to these composers/musicians much in the same spirit that they gave of themselves in their own works. In many ways, these stories are as informative as some music history texts. From Bach to Stravinsky, these stories will make you laugh and cry. If you've grown weary of Lebrecht's more recent dark outlooks on the future of classical music, this book looks back on the sunnier days. Full of humorous, informative and touching stories, you won't regret you bought this!

Whether you look at this book for its material, practicality of use, OR aesthetics, I have to honestly say that this is a 5-star book in every way.

I've been a life-long fan of quotations. I just love it when I see a really great thought summarized in a brilliantly simple line or two. I keep a personal compilation of favorite quotes in several MS Word docs on my computer, always adding to it when I come across a new quote that I really like.

Unfortuantely, a lot of the quotations I see on calendars, day planners, bumper stickers, and other places are just...soft. They're more about self-righteousness than food for thought. Most quotations are just irrelevant Bible quotes, or uninspiring rehashes of the golden rule, or simply devoid of any logic (like this ridiculous "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind" sticker that everybody has on their bumpers. First of all, an "eye for an eye" means "let the punishment fit the crime", not revenge. Even then, you don't HAVE any eye poking if people learn to mind their own business in the first place!)

Enter "The Book of Satanic Quotations". Whether you identify as an atheist, freethinker, Objectivist, misanthropist, social darwinist, rational hedonist, or just a general non-conformist, you'll find no shortage of devilishly lovable quotes in this book. There's certainly no shortage of religion bashing quotes, but that's far from being the only subject. The quotes are arranged alphabetically by author, and the topic index makes it easy to look up a theme and find a slew of relevant quotes.

The editor also stresses the point that a good quote is a good quote, regardless of who it comes from, so to whine "Why is Fredrick Douglas in this book?!? He was a Christian!" is to miss the point. These are all well-selected quotes, whether they come from ancient philosophers or modern rock stars. They show the world and life as they truly are, not "ought" to be. In a world where most people seem to praise conformity, mediocrity, and outdated religious dogma, the kinds of quotes here become quite "Satanic" to the status quo indeed.

Of course there IS already a non-theistic religion that incorporates freethought, epicurean philosophy, and all of those other things mentioned earler: Satanism. Not devil worship (which is just based on old folklore, church propaganda stories, and tacky horror movies), but rather the actual philosophy of Satanism, codefied by Anton Szandor LaVey, author of "The Satanic Bible". And that IS after all what it truly means to be devilish: witty, shamelessly indulgent, clever, and questioning. Appropriately, there are plenty of quotes from him and other actual Satanists. But instead of purely going for the obvious quotes from The Satanic Bible, the editor made a point of using equally good quotes from many out-of-print articles, interviews and other obscure sources.

This is NOT some copy and paste job from a few "quote" websites either. The editor went through the long and hard process of verifying every quote whenever possible, listing specific sources. That's more that can be said for the mass-forwarded internet posts, usually falsely attributed to different celebrities (here's a hint folks: 99% of the stuff on the internet that's attributed to George Carlin, isn't from him!)

And as if the content wasn't enough, the book in and of itself was put together EXTREMELY well. I have seen so many "self-published" books over the years that are filled with spelling mistakes, no index or table of contents, off-set margins, etc. Trust me when I say this is NOT a bunch of paper and pixelated pictures stolen from the web and randomly stapled together in some guy's basement. This is top-notch professional work. My jaw dropped when I flipped through it for the first time. It's also filled with beautiful medieval lithographs.

So if you're sick of the same old "Chicken Soup for the Soul", Oprah book club, "I'm OK, you're OK" stuff, or other forms of self-righteousness wrapped in bad advice, and you're looking for the diabolical antithesis (read: fun, witty, practical, and not sugar-coated), then do get this book. This is the kind of book you'll find yourself going back to and flipping through for years to come.

For those looking for a primer on intellectual and moral success, and perhaps most importantly, urbane humor, this is the book to read (and to have on your coffee table for others to read). I knew the author. The quotes he chose were inspired by his own life experiences: journalist, World War II veteran (10th Mountain Division), and speechwriter. He distills a lifetime of observation and humor into an easily readable and enjoyable book. This book is the result of a career of examining the thoughts of history's great (and not-so-great) figures for application to our own times---and he distilled them all for us to read in an afternoon. Buy it, read it, share it with your friends.

I am a fan of quotations and have always tapped into these simple, but profound wisdoms to enhance my life. Beyond a doubt, this author has meticulously selected some of the best. His noting the benefit of applying these to your own personal aspirations really hit home with my belief that they are personal tools, not just entertainment. I would highly recommend this book, not only to those who enjoy quotations or write speeches, but to all who would like to improve their life by tapping into the great wisdom vaults we all should treasure.

Of all the (countless) responses to the Bard by writers over the last four hundred years or so, this one may be the most idiosyncratic; it may also be the most intelligent, insightful and inspired. BOTTOM: ON SHAKESPEARE reminds me a little bit of Burton's THE ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY, first, in its encyclopedic bulk, and, second, in the preponderance of quotes in its pages. Louis Zukofsky was a world-class quoter (he's spiritual kin to Walter Benjamin, I think, who dreamed of writing-if that's the right word-a book composed entirely of quotations), and in BOTTOM, he cites everyone from Homer to Wittgenstein, and whole pages of Shakespeare, for the central purpose of elucidating what may be thought of as the book's thesis, which Zukofsky puts thus:

"Love is to reason as the eyes are to mind."

I don't pretend to understand entirely what that means. But the idea that to perceive something as it truly is requires love, or is the beginning of love, or both, is beautiful.

It's important to keep in mind that although he was a professor of English, widely read, and had an acute literary-critical gift, Zukofsky was, above all, an artist. A staggering amount of scholarship went into BOTTOM, but it is, in the end, a poetic response to Shakespeare, a poet's reply to a poet. By academic standards, therefore, BOTTOM is downright eccentric. An example. Elsewhere, Zukofsky writes, "And it is possible in imagination to divorce speech of all graphic elements, to let it become a movement of sounds." Thought as music. A writer as deeply ethical as Zukofsky would never say something like that if he didn't mean it, and so we find that the second part of BOTTOM, the culmination of his thought on Shakespeare, isn't critical prose, but a musical setting for PERICLES, composed by Celia Zukofsky, Louis's wife.

Obviously, this book isn't an introduction to Shakespeare. The student coming to grips with the Bard won't get much help here. Like Zukofsky's poetry, of which it's very much an extension, BOTTOM can be obscure and taxing. On the other hand, it's as beautiful as it is difficult. At every turn, some idea or turn of phrase will make the patient reader gasp (or sigh, I suppose, depending on one's temperament). For anyone really, vitally engaged with Shakespeare, for any fan of Zukofsky, and for anyone who really cares about poetry, five stars is too few to recommend BOTTOM: ON SHAKESPEARE.

Box and Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung are two one-act plays by Richard Albee - probably the premier absurdist playwright in the United States. However, the reader should know that while these two works are technically one-act plays, Albee intended that they be performed together with Box being performed, then Quotations, and the Box again. Also, the reader needs to pay particular attention to the stage set-up and the staging because they play an important role in understanding these two plays. Finally, I think it is best to read them in the manner in which Albee intended them to be performed - box, quotations, and then box again - to get the full sense of the plays. While I must admit that I am a big fan of Albee's other plays - who can deny the brilliance of Virginia Woolf or the enjoyment and shock of The Sandbox? However, I think that in terms of sheer genius, these are two of Albee's best plays, because of how they - like many of Albee's plays - challenge the audience to look at the world and the theatre in new ways by forcing the audience to question their assumptions about theatre and context.

Although I do not own this book "yet" I have borrowed it from a friend. Every page I turn I smile, laugh, or am in awe of a story that tells about God's grace. This is a book for mature 16 year olds and on I think. I think possibly younger children may not appreciate some of the humor, but it is definatly a great buy.