Home / Quotes / Quote by Gary Saul Morson

Quote by Gary Saul Morson

“Anatole France frankly advised, "When a thing has been said and said well, have no scruple. Take it and copy it." Yes, indeed, but do more. Copy many well-said things. Pierce them together. Assimilate them. Make the process of reading them a way to form the mind and shape the soul. As anthologies can never be complete, we will never exhaust the ways quotations can enrich our lives.”

Quote by Gary Saul Morson

Author

Gary Saul Morson

Gary Saul Morson is a prominent scholar with a broad influence in the fields of literature, culture, and思想. His research spans various areas, including Russian literature, cultural theory, and intellectual history, particularly known for his insightful analysis of moral and philosophical issues in Russian literature. more

You May Also Like

“A single gnomic line can come to resonate with centuries of subsequent wisdom.”

Lines Century Quotations

Author:Gary Saul Morson

“Unless created as freestanding works, quotations resemble "found" art. They are analogous, say, to a piece of driftwood identified as formally interesting enough to be displayed in an art museum or to a weapon moved from an anthropological to an artistic display.... The presenter of found art, whether material or verbal, has become a sort of artist. He has not made the object, but he has made it as art.”

Art Made Enough Artist Found Interesting Pieces Objects Materials Weapons Moved Made It Artistic Museums Display Quotations Presenter Driftwood

Author:Gary Saul Morson

“I wonder if "an" ever occurs before "haughty" except in a quotation, or whether you can make anything sound like a quotation by adding a word like "goeth"?”

Ifs Sound Wonder Quotations Haughty Goeth

Book:The Words of Others: From Quotations to Culture

Source: The Words of Others: From Quotations to Culture

“The attribution of a speaker is in fact a part of the quotation. Some statements simply are better if a certain famous person said them.”

Ifs Persons Said Facts Certain Statements Speakers Quotations Attribution

Author:Gary Saul Morson

“Reframing an extract as a quotation constitutes a kind of coauthorship. With no change in wording, the cited passage becomes different. I imagine that the thrill of making an anthology includes the opportunity to become such a coauthor.”

Kind Different Opportunity Imagine Passages Imagine That Quotations Thrill Anthology Wording Reframing

Author:Gary Saul Morson

“An anthology of quotations is a museum of utterances.”

Museums Quotations Utterance Anthology

Author:Gary Saul Morson

“People who rarely read long books, or even short stories, still appreciate the greatest examples of the shortest literary genres. I have long been fascinated by these short genres. They seem to lie just where my heart is, somewhere between literature and philosophy.”

People Heart Long Stills Book Philosophy Stories Seems Lying Literature Example My Heart Appreciate Genre Short Story Fascinated Long Book Literary Genre

Author:Gary Saul Morson

“We sometimes think of quotations as extracts from larger texts, but some quotations originated complete unto themselves.”

Thinking Sometimes Quotations

Author:Gary Saul Morson

“Books are the beehives of thought; laconics, the honey taken from them.”

Book Taken Honey Quotations Beehives

Author:James Ellis

“A knowledge of general literature is one of the evidences of an enlightened mind; and to give an apt quotation at a fitting time, proves that the mind is stored with sentential lore that can always be used to great advantage by its possessor.”

Giving Mind Used Literature Prove Evidence Advantage Enlightened Quotations Fitting

Author:James Ellis