text:
François-René de Chateaubriand

François-René, vicomte de Chateaubriand (4 September 1768 – 4 July 1848) was a French writer, politician and diplomat, considered the founder of Romanticism in French literature.

Quotes

 * Achilles exists only through Homer. Take away the art of writing from this world, and you will probably take away its glory.
 * Les Natchez (1826).

 * I am Bourbon as a matter of honour, royalist according to reason and conviction, and republican by taste and character.
 * "De la restauration et de la monarchie élective" (1831).

 * In living literature no person is a competent judge but of works written in his own language. I have expressed my opinion concerning a number of English writers; it is very possible that I may be mistaken, that my admiration and my censure may be equally misplaced, and that my conclusions may appear impertinent and ridiculous on the other side of the Channel.
 * Sketches of English Literature, Vol II, p. 36, as translated by Henry Colburn

 * Perfect works are rare, because they must be produced at the happy moment when taste and genius unite; and this rare conjuncture, like that of certain planets, appears to occur only after the revolution of several cycles, and only lasts for an instant.
 * As quoted in Dictionary of Quotations from Ancient and Modern, English and Foreign Sources (1893) selected and compiled by James Wood.

 * Aussitôt qu'une pensée vraie est entrée dans notre esprit, elle jette une lumière qui nous fait voir une foule d'autres objets que nous n'apercevions pas auparavant.
 * As soon as a true thought has entered our mind, it gives a light which makes us see a crowd of other objects which we have never perceived before.
 * As quoted in A Dictionary of Thoughts: Being a Cyclopedia of Laconic Quotations from the Best Authors of the World, both Ancient and Modern (1908) by Tyron Edwards.

 * Every institution goes through three stages — utility, privilege, and abuse.
 * As quoted in Culture and Progress (1930) by Wilson Dallam Wallis.

Le génie du Christianisme (1802)

 * Le génie du Christianisme [The Genius of Christianity] (1802) Full text in French (PDF)

 * J'ai pleuré et j'ai cru.
 * I wept, and I believed.
 * Preface.

 * L’écrivain original n’est pas celui qui n’imite personne, mais celui que personne ne peut imiter.
 * The original writer is not he who refrains from imitating others, but he who can be imitated by none.
 * The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations (1979) 3rd edition
 * Variant translations: The original style is not the style which never borrows of any one, but that which no other person is capable of reproducing.
 * As translated by Charles I. White (1856) Part 2, Book 1, Chapter 3
 * An original writer is not one who imitates nobody, but one whom nobody can imitate.
 * Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (1980) 15th edition.

 * Though we have not employed the arguments usually advanced by the apologists of Christianity, we have arrived by a different chain of reasoning at the same conclusion: Christianity is perfect; men are imperfect. Now, a perfect consequence cannot spring from an imperfect principle. Christianity, therefore, is not the work of men. If Christianity is not the work of man, it can have come from none but God. If it came from God, men cannot have acquired a knowledge of it except by revelation. Therefore, Christianity is a revealed religion.
 * As translated in A Cloud of Witnesses : The Greatest Men in the World for Christ and the Book (1894) by Stephen Abbott Northrop

Mémoires d'outre-tombe (1848 – 1850)

 * [Memoirs from Beyond the Grave] Mémoires d'Outre-Tombe, English translation by A. S. Kline

 * I have explored the seas of the Old World and the New, and trodden the soil of the four quarters of the Earth. Having camped in the cabins of Iroquois, and beneath the tents of Arabs, in the wigwams of Hurons, in the remains of Athens, Jerusalem, Memphis, Carthage, Granada, among Greeks, Turks and Moors, among forests and ruins; after wearing the bearskin cloak of the savage, and the silk caftan of the Mameluke, after suffering poverty, hunger, thirst, and exile, I have sat, a minister and ambassador, covered with gold lace, gaudy with ribbons and decorations, at the table of kings, the feasts of princes and princesses, only to fall once more into indigence and know imprisonment.
 * Preface (1833).

 * I have borne the musket of a soldier, the traveller’s cane, and the pilgrim’s staff: as a sailor my fate has been as inconstant as the wind: a kingfisher, I have made my nest among the waves. I have been party to peace and war: I have signed treaties, protocols, and along the way published numerous works. I have been made privy to party secrets, of court and state: I have viewed closely the rarest disasters, the greatest good fortune, the highest reputations. I have been present at sieges, congresses, conclaves, at the restoration and demolition of thrones. I have made history, and been able to write it. ... Within and alongside my age, perhaps without wishing or seeking to, I have exerted upon it a triple influence, religious, political and literary.
 * Preface (1833).

 * Memory is often the attribute of stupidity; it generally belongs to heavy spirits whom it makes even heavier by the baggage it loads them down with.
 * Book II: Ch. 1:The School at Dol – Mathematics and Languages – The nature of my memory

 * It is a long way from Combourg to Berlin, from a youthful dreamer to an old minister. I find among the words preceding these: ‘In how many places have I already continued writing these Memoirs, and in what place will I finish them?'
 * In Berlin, (March 1821); Book IV, Chapter 1: Berlin – Potsdam – Frederick.

 * Aristocracy has three successive ages, — the age of superiorities, the age of privileges, and the age of vanities; having passed out of the first, it degenerates in the second, and dies away in the third.
 * Variants: Aristocracy has three successive ages. First superiorities, then privileges and finally vanities. Having passed from the first, it degenerates in the second and dies in the third. Aristocracy has three successive ages. First superiority, then privileges and finally vanities. Having passed from the first, it degenerates in the second and dies in the third.
 * Original version: L'aristocratie a trois âges successifs : l'âge des supériorités, l'âge des privilèges, l'âge des vanités ; sortie du premier, elle dégènère dans le second et s'éteint dans le dernier.
 * Book I, Ch. 1 : The Vallé-aux-loups

 * I halt at the beginning of my travels, in Pennsylvania, in order to compare Washington and Bonaparte. I would rather not have concerned myself with them until the point where I had met Napoleon; but if I came to the edge of my grave without having reached the year 1814 in my tale, no one would then know anything of what I would have written concerning these two representatives of Providence. I remember Castelnau: like me Ambassador to England, who wrote like me a narrative of his life in London. On the last page of Book VII, he says to his son: ‘I will deal with this event in Book VIII,’ and Book VIII of Castelnau’s Memoirs does not exist: that warns me to take advantage of being alive.
 * Book VI: Ch. 8: Comparison of Washington and Bonaparte

 * A degree of silence envelops Washington’s actions; he moved slowly; one might say that he felt charged with future liberty, and that he feared to compromise it. It was not his own destiny that inspired this new species of hero: it was that of his country; he did not allow himself to enjoy what did not belong to him; but from that profound humility what glory emerged! Search the woods where Washington’s sword gleamed: what do you find? Tombs? No; a world! Washington has left the United States behind for a monument on the field of battle. Bonaparte shared no trait with that serious American: he fought amidst thunder in an old world; he thought about nothing but creating his own fame; he was inspired only by his own fate. He seemed to know that his project would be short, that the torrent which falls from such heights flows swiftly; he hastened to enjoy and abuse his glory, like fleeting youth. Following the example of Homer’s gods, in four paces he reached the ends of the world. He appeared on every shore; he wrote his name hurriedly in the annals of every people; he threw royal crowns to his family and his generals; he hurried through his monuments, his laws, his victories. Leaning over the world, with one hand he deposed kings, with the other he pulled down the giant, Revolution; but, in eliminating anarchy, he stifled liberty, and ended by losing his own on his last field of battle. Each was rewarded according to his efforts: Washington brings a nation to independence; a justice at peace, he falls asleep beneath his own roof in the midst of his compatriots’ grief and the veneration of nations. Bonaparte robs a nation of its independence: deposed as emperor, he is sent into exile, where the world’s anxiety still does not think him safely enough imprisoned, guarded by the Ocean. He dies: the news proclaimed on the door of the palace in front of which the conqueror had announced so many funerals, neither detains nor astonishes the passer-by: what have the citizens to mourn? Washington’s Republic lives on; Bonaparte’s empire is destroyed. Washington and Bonaparte emerged from the womb of democracy: both of them born to liberty, the former remained faithful to her, the latter betrayed her. Washington acted as the representative of the needs, the ideas, the enlightened men, the opinions of his age; he supported, not thwarted, the stirrings of intellect; he desired only what he had to desire, the very thing to which he had been called: from which derives the coherence and longevity of his work. That man who struck few blows because he kept things in proportion has merged his existence with that of his country: his glory is the heritage of civilisation; his fame has risen like one of those public sanctuaries where a fecund and inexhaustible spring flows.
 * Book VI: Ch. 8: Comparison of Washington and Bonaparte.

 * One does not learn how to die by killing others.
 * Book IX: Ch. 4: Danton – Camille Desmoulins – Fabre d’Églantine.

 * My downfall made a great noise: those who appeared most satisfied criticized the manner of it.
 * Book XXVIII, Ch. 2: The Opposition follows me.

 * How small man is on this little atom where he dies! But how great his intelligence! He knows when the face of the stars must be masked in darkness, when the comets will return after thousands of years, he who lasts only an instant! A microscopic insect lost in a fold of the heavenly robe, the orbs cannot hide from him a single one of their movements in the depth of space. What destinies will those stars, new to us, light? Is their revelation bound up with some new phase of humanity? You will know, race to be born; I know not, and I am departing.
 * Book XLII: Ch. 18: A summary of the changes which have occurred around the globe in my lifetime

 * New storms will arise; one can believe in calamities to come which will surpass the afflictions we have been overwhelmed by in the past; already, men are thinking of bandaging their old wounds to return to the battlefield. However, I do not expect an imminent outbreak of war: nations and kings are equally weary; unforeseen catastrophe will not yet fall on France: what follows me will only be the effect of general transformation. No doubt there will be painful moments: the face of the world cannot change without suffering. But, once again, there will be no separate revolutions; simply the great revolution approaching its end. The scenes of tomorrow no longer concern me; they call for other artists: your turn, gentlemen! As I write these last words, my window, which looks west over the gardens of the Foreign Mission, is open: it is six in the morning; I can see the pale and swollen moon; it is sinking over the spire of the Invalides, scarcely touched by the first golden glow from the East; one might say that the old world was ending, and the new beginning. I behold the light of a dawn whose sunrise I shall never see. It only remains for me to sit down at the edge of my grave; then I shall descend boldly, crucifix in hand, into eternity.
 * Book XLII: Ch. 18: A summary of the changes which have occurred around the globe in my lifetime

Misattributed

 * A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play; his labor and his leisure; his mind and his body; his education and his recreation. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence through whatever he is doing, and leaves others to determine whether he is working or playing. To himself, he always appears to be doing both.
 * Misattributed to Chateaubriand on the internet and even some recently published books, this statement actually originated with L. P. Jacks in Education through Recreation (1932)

Quotes about Chateaubriand

 * He has abundant views on the future, particularly on the subject of religion and the social rôle which he believed it called upon to play. His influence on literature is unanimously acknowledged. Romanticism may be traced back to him, and it may even be said that the whole literary movement characteristic of the nineteenth century begins with him.
 * Georges Bertrin in The Catholic Encyclopedia, (1908) Volume III

 * In the twenty-sixth book of his Mémoires d'outre-tombe, Chateaubriand recounts his 1821 arrival at the French embassy in Berlin. He cites a flattering portrait of him written by the Baroness of Hohenhausen and published in the morning press on March 22: "M. de Chateaubriand is of a somewhat short, yet slender, stature. His oval face has an expression of reverence and melancholy. He has black hair and black eyes that glow with the fire of his mind." At this point, Chateaubriand flatly adds: "Mais j'ai les cheveux blancs; j'ai plus d'un siècle, en outre, je suis mort" ("But I have white hair; I am more than a century old, besides, I am dead") ... Of course, those startling words, "en outre, je suis mort" do not refer to the year 1821, nor to the time Chateaubriand is writing this account. Rather, they refer to the time we, readers, turn to this specific page of the Mémoires: as you are reading this, Chateaubriand reminds us, I am dead. The words wrest us away from the event he is relating, his arrival in Berlin, to remind us in the most direct terms that our reading of these words necessarily entails the death of their author. Moreover, the French en outre brings us back to the very title of the Mémoires d'outre-tombe: outre-tombe, from beyond the grave. In 1836, Chateaubriand signed a contract with a society of shareholders: in exchange for an immediate payment of 156,000 francs and a life annuity, he sold "the literary ownership of his Mémoires as they existed and as they would exist at his death." Commenting on this transaction, Maurice Levaillant notes: "With this agreement, Chateaubriand bought material security at the price of a concession that he never got over: instead of appearing after a period he had first prescribed as fifty years after his death, his Mémoires would suddenly appear, so to speak, live from his grave."
 * Marie-Hélène Huet, in "Chateaubriand and the Politics of (Im)mortality" in diacritics, Volume 30, Number 3, (Fall 2000)

 * I will be Chateaubriand or nothing.
 * Victor Hugo at the age of 15 in one of his notebooks, as quoted in The Literary Movement in France During the Nineteenth Century (1897) by Georges Pellissier

title: François-René de Chateaubriand


text:
Stanisław Jerzy Lec

Stanisław Jerzy Lec (6 March 1909 – 7 May 1966) was a Polish poet and aphorist.

Quotes

looks attentively at the gravedigger's work, but not pedantically: for '''this one digs a grave not for himself.'''
 * He who had dug his own grave
 * "He who had dug his own grave", from To Abel and Cain, commemorating his escape from the Nazis by his 1943 killing of an SS guard who had been assigned to watch as he dug his own grave, as quoted in "10 Amazing Ways People Survived The Holocaust" by Alan Boyle at Listverse (9 November 2014)

 * Do not expect too much of the end of the world.
 * As quoted in Foucault's Pendulum (1989) by Umberto Eco, Ch. 7, p. 49; cited to a 1977 Polish edition of Unkempt Thoughts.

 * Those who are ahead of their time often have to wait for it in uncomfortable quarters.
 * As quoted in Power for the World (2010) by Wolfgang Palz, Foreword, p. xxi

Unkempt Thoughts (1957)

 * Myśli nieuczesane (1957) as translated by Jacek Galazka (1962)

 *  Wszystko jest w rękach człowieka. Dlatego należy je często myć.
 * All is in the hands of Man. Therefore you should wash them often.

 * Nawet w jego milczeniu były błędy językowe.
 * There were grammatical errors even in his silence.
 * Variant translation: Even in his silence were grammatical errors.

 * Pogrożę mu tylko palcem – rzekł, kładąc go na cynglu.
 * "I will just wag my finger at him", he said, putting it on the trigger.

 * Czy jeżeli ludożerca je widelcem i nożem to postęp?
 * Is it progress if a cannibal uses knife and fork?
 * This inspired the title for Cannibals with Forks : The Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business (1998) by John Elkington

 * W walce idei giną ludzie.
 * In a war of ideas it is people who get killed.

 * You will always find some Eskimos ready to instruct the Congolese on how to cope with heat waves.

 * Hay smells different to lovers and horses.

 * Do not ask God the way to heaven; he will show you the hardest one.

 * The window to the world can be covered by a newspaper.

 * Tłum krzyczy jednymi wielkimi ustami, ale je tysiącem małych.
 * The mob shouts with one big mouth and eats with a thousand little ones.

 * Politics: a Trojan horse race.

 * Thoughts, like fleas, jump from man to man, but they don't bite everybody.

 * Satirists, be careful. In the 1931 film by René Clair Vive la Liberte a song says, "Work is freedom." In 1940 the sign on the gates to Auschwitz said: "Arbeit macht frei."

 * '' Burząc pomniki, oszczędzajcie cokoły. Zawsze mogą się przydać.
 * When smashing monuments, save the pedestals. They always come in handy.

 * Optimists and pessimists differ only on the date of the end of the world.

 * All of our separate fictions add up to joint reality.

 * The moment of recognizing your own lack of talent is a flash of genius.

 * Morality is either a social contract or you have to pay cash.

 * Gdy z radości podskoczysz do góry, uważaj, by ci ktoś ziemi spod nóg nie usunął.
 * When you jump for joy, beware that no one moves the ground from beneath your feet.

 * When everything has to be right, something isn't.

 * Open Sesame — I want to get out.

More Unkempt Thoughts (1964)

 * Myśli nieuczesane nowe (1964) as translated by Jacek Galazka (1969)

 * The Order of the Garter usually goes to people who already have full wardrobes.

 * It is the high priests that make demands — not the gods they serve.

 * Żaden płatek śniegu nie czuje się odpowiedzialny za lawinę.
 * No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.

 * Do not trust people. They are capable of greatness.

Quotes about Lec

Lec sums up the predicament of the one gifted with creative powers, the well-known neurotic, pathological condition of the artist, in such words: "The richer your imagination, the poorer you feel." But then Lec also assures him: "Every bush can burn if you fire it with your imagination." Yet all that anguish and loneliness may be worth it for: "To suffer heartaches and not be a poet? Whatever for?"
 * Every great writer has one single obsession, and Lec tells us: "I wanted to tell the world just one word. Unable to do it I became a writer." And in another aphorism one is reminded of Picasso as he characteristically moves towards his creation through a continual grappling with and destruction of chaotic forms: "What is chaos? It is the Order destroyed during Creation." It was also Picasso who memorably called art "a lie which tells the truth", and Lec comes pretty close to the maestro with this one: "A beautiful lie? Listen! That's creativity."
 * Azizul Hakeem, in Minor Prejudices : Essays on the Arts & Literature, Cultural Perspectives, and Personal Reflections (2008), p. 81

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Stanisław Jerzy Lec


text:
Marilyn Monroe

 (born Norma Jeane Mortenson; 1 June 1926 – 5 August 1962) was an American actress, singer and model.

Quotes

 *  I had the radio on.
 * As quoted in TIME magazine when "asked if she had nothing on in the photograph [for a 1949 calendar]" ("Something for the Boys." Time 60, no. 6 (August 11, 1952): 90)

 * Everyone's childhood plays itself out. No wonder no one knows the other or can completely understand. By this, I don't know if I'm just giving up with this conclusion or resigning myself — or maybe for the first time connecting with reality. How do we know the pain or another's earlier years, let alone all that he drags with him since along the way at best a lot of leeways is needed for the other — yet how much is unhealthy for one to bear? I think to love bravely is the best and accept — as much as one can bear.
 * Marilyn's diaries (1958), as quoted in Fragments (2010), by Stanley Buchthal and Bernard Comment

 *  For life: It is rather a determination not to be overwhelmed. For work: The truth can only be recalled, never invented.
 * Marilyn's diaries, as quoted in Fragments (2010), by Stanley Buchthal and Bernard Comment

 * It's a bad habit, I know, but I believe that you shouldn't do anything in life until you're ready. Half of life's heartaches come from decisions made in a hurry. One should make haste slowly.
 * On her lack of punctuality, as quoted in "Tardy but Talented" by James Bacon (AP), The Louisville Courier-Journal (July 17, 1960), p. 84

 * I know I will never be happy but I know I can be gay! Remember I told you Kazan said I was the gayest girl he ever knew; believe me, he has known many. But he loved me for one year and once rocked me to sleep one night when I was in great anguish. He also suggested that I go into analysis and later wanted me to work with Lee Strasberg. Was it Milton who wrote: "The happy ones were never born"? I know at least two psychiatrists who are looking for a more positive approach.
 * In a letter to her psychiatrist, Dr. Ralph Greenson, in 1961, quoted in Marilyn's Last Sessions (2010) by Michel Schneider

 * I'm a failure as a woman. My men expect so much of me, because of the image they've made of me — and that I've made of myself — as a sex symbol. They expect bells to ring and whistles to whistle, but my anatomy is the same as any other woman's and I can't live up to it.
 * Statement c. 1962, as quoted in Marilyn (1992) by Peter Harry Brown and Patte B. Barham, Ch. 30

 *  Unfortunately, I am involved in a freedom ride protesting the loss of the minority rights belonging to the few remaining earthbound stars. All we demanded was our right to twinkle.
 * Telegram, turning down a party invitation from Mr. and Mrs. Robert F. Kennedy (13 June 1962)

 *  I think that when you are famous every weakness is exaggerated. ... Goethe said, "Talent is developed in privacy," you know? And it's true. ... Creativity has got to start with humanity and when you're a human being, you feel, you suffer. You're gay, you're sick, you're nervous or whatever.
 * "Marilyn Monroe Pours Her Heart Out" interview by Richard Meryman, in Life (3 August 1962)

 *  Say goodbye to Pat, say goodbye to the president, and say goodbye to yourself because you're a nice guy. ... I'll see, I'll see.
 * Last words to Peter Lawford (5 August 1962), as quoted at Spiegel Online

 *  Please don't make me a joke. End the interview with what I believe. I don't mind making jokes, but I don't want to look like one... I want to be an artist, an actress with integrity... If fame goes by, so long, I've had you, fame. If it goes by, I've always known it was fickle. So at least it's something I experienced, but that's not where I live.
 * Her last taped interview, with Richard Meryman, was published in LIFE magazine a few days before her death. (3 August 1962); quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972)

 *  Say good-bye to Pat, say good-bye to Jack and say good-bye to yourself, because you're a nice guy.
 * Last words to actor Peter Lawford, in August 1962, as quoted in US News & World Report  (7 October 1985)

 *  An actress is not a machine, but they treat you like a machine. A money machine.
 * As quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972) p. 38

 * Why? — It paid the rent.
 * On why she had posed nude for a calendar photograph, quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972) p. 39

 *  I restore myself when I'm alone. A career is born in public — talent in privacy.
 * As quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972) p. 40

 *  That's the trouble, a sex symbol becomes a thing. But if I'm going to be a symbol of something, I'd rather it be sex than some of the things we've got symbols of... I hate to be a thing.
 * Comment on her sex symbol status, quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972) p. 40

 * I'm not interested in money, I just want to be wonderful.
 * As quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972) p. 41

 *  The studio people want me to do "Goodbye Charlie" for the movies, but I'm not going to do it. I don't like the idea of playing a man in a woman's body — you know? It just doesn't seem feminine.
 * On turning down a role, eventually played by Debbie Reynolds, as quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972) p. 41

 *  First, I'm trying to prove to myself that I'm a person. Then maybe I'll convince myself that I'm an actress.
 * As quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972) p. 42

 *  The truth is I've never fooled anyone. I've let men sometimes fool themselves. Men sometimes didn't bother to find out who and what I was. Instead, they would invent a character for me. I wouldn't argue with them. They were obviously loving somebody I wasn't. When they found this out, they would blame me for disillusioning them — and fooling them.
 * My Story (1974; co-written with Ben Hecht; 2007 edition), p. 133
 * Variant: The truth is I've never fooled anyone. I've let people fool themselves. They didn't bother to find out who and what I was. Instead, they would invent a character for me. I wouldn't argue with them. They were loving somebody I wasn't. When they found this out, they would blame me for disillusioning them and fooling them.
 * As paraphrased in On Being Blonde: Wit and Wisdom from the World's Most Infamous Blondes (2004) by Paula Munier, p. 52

 * If you get massages, you'll never need another sleeping pill.
 * As quoted in Marilyn Monroe Confidential (1980) by Lena Pepitone and William Stedien p. 172

 * Dogs never bite me. Just humans.
 * As quoted in "A Beautiful Child" in Music for Chameleons (1980) by Truman Capote

 *  I don't know who invented the high heel, but all women owe him a lot. Excuse the pun, but it was the high heel that gave a big lift to my career.
 * As quoted in "When it comes to shoes, practicality often takes a back seat" by Mary T. Schmich, The Orlando Sentinel (November 9, 1983), p. 51

 *  The body is meant to be seen, not all covered up.
 * Handwritten note responding to a question about posing nude, as quoted in International Herald Tribune (5 October 1984)

 * Husbands are chiefly good as lovers when they are betraying their wives.
 * As quoted in Marilyn Monroe: In Her Own Words (1983), edited by Roger Taylor

 * My work is the only ground I've ever had to stand on. I seem to have a whole superstructure with no foundation — but I'm working on the foundation.
 * As quoted in Marilyn Monroe: In Her Own Words (1983), edited by Roger Taylor

 *  Hollywood's a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss, and fifty cents for your soul. I know, because I turned down the first offer often enough and held out for the fifty cents.
 * As quoted in Marilyn Monroe: In Her Own Words (1983), edited by Roger Taylor

 *  When you're famous you kind of run into human nature in a raw kind of way. It stirs up envy, fame does. People, you run into feel that, well, who does she think she is, Marilyn Monroe? They feel fame gives them some kind of privilege to walk up to you and say anything to you, of any kind of nature — and it won't hurt your feelings — like it's happening to your clothes, not you.
 * Comment on fame, quoted in Marilyn Monroe: A Life of the Actress (1993) by Carl E. Rollyson, and in Symbolic Leaders: Public Dramas and Public Men (2006) by Orrin Edgar Klapp
 * Variant: People feel fame gives them some kind of privilege to walk up to you and say anything to you, of any kind of nature — and it won't hurt your feelings — like it's happening to your clothing.
 * As quoted in Ms. magazine (August 1972) p. 40

 * Success makes so many people hate you. I wish it wasn't that way. It would be wonderful to enjoy success without seeing envy in the eyes of those around you.
 * As quoted in The Films of Barbra Streisand (2001) by Christopher Nickens and Karen Swenson

 *  I sleep in the nude but I pull the sheets up.
 * Jock Carroll, "Rare Marilyn: a portfolio work by 20 photographers", American Photo (May - June 1997)

 * I guess I never felt I affected people until I was in Korea.
 * As quoted in Marilyn: a biography (1973) by Norman Mailer p. 21

 * The sweaters were hand-me-downs. They were too small for me, and I guess that's what made everyone take notice. But it made me feel important. Men were looking at me for the first time. And I liked it. I felt good in them. And when I felt how tight they held me in, I quit wearing a bra.
 * As quoted in The Life and Curious Death of Marilyn Monroe (1974) by Robert F. Slatzer p. 67

 *  Elizabeth Taylor converted too. So we're both Jewish.
 * As quoted in Marilyn Monroe Confidential (1980) by Lena Pepitone and William Stedian p. 185

 * People have curious attitudes about nudity just as they have about sex. Nudity and sex are the most commonplace things in the world. Yet people often act as if they were things that only existed on Mars.
 * As quoted in My Story (2006) by Marilyn Monroe and Ben Hecht p. 60

On Being Blonde (2007)

 * Quotes of Monroe from On Being Blonde: Wit and Wisdom from the World's Most Infamous Blondes (2004) by Paula Munier

 * It's far better to be unhappy alone than unhappy with someone — so far.
 * p. 52

 *  It stirs up envy, fame does. People, you run into feel that, well, who does she think she is, Marilyn Monroe? They feel fame gives them some kind of privilege to walk up to you and say anything to you, of any kind of nature — and it won't hurt your feelings — like it's happening to your clothes, not you.
 * p. 52

 *  A career is wonderful, but you can't curl up with it on a cold night.
 * p. 53

 * Arthur Miller wouldn't have married me if I had been nothing but a dumb blonde.
 * p. 54

 * People had a habit of looking at me as if I were some kind of mirror instead of a person. They didn't see me, they saw their lewd thoughts, then they white-masked themselves by calling me the lewd one.
 * p. 54

Misattributed
Many social media and self-help books images tend to misattribute quotes to Marilyn Monroe.

 * A woman knows by intuition, or instinct, what is best for herself.
 * Attributed to Monroe in self-help books and on social media, this quotation is of unknown origin and date.
 * I'm selfish, impatient and a little insecure. I make mistakes, I am out of control and at times hard to handle. But if you can't handle me at my worst, then you sure as hell don't deserve me at my best.
 * Attributed to Monroe in self-help books and on social media, this quotation is of unknown origin and date.
 * To all the girls that think you're fat because you're not a size zero you're the beautiful one it's society who's ugly.
 * Attributed to Monroe in self-help books and on social media, this quotation is of unknown origin and date.
 * A sex symbol is a heavy load to carry when one is tired, hurt and bewildered.
 * Attributed to Monroe on social media, but this quote was actually said by Clara Bow.

Quotes about Monroe

 * Sorted alphabetically by author or source.

 * She came up to me and said, "You're going to play my uncle, right?" "That's right, Miss Monroe." Then she looked at me and said, "No incest."
 * , on meeting Monroe for the first time, on the set of ; as quoted in "We Know That Face; But What's His Name?" by Paul Ben-Itzak (Reuters), The Windsor Star (December 15, 1987), p. 33

 * I think Marilyn is bound to make an almost overwhelming impression on the people who meet her for the first time. It is not that she is pretty, although she is of course almost incredibly pretty, but she radiates, at the same time, unbounded vitality and a kind of unbelievable innocence. I have met the same in a lion-cub, which my native servants in Africa brought me. I would not keep her, since I felt that it would in some way be wrong...I shall never forget the almost overpowering feeling of unconquerable strength and sweetness which she conveyed. I had all the wild nature of Africa amicably gazing at me with mighty playfulness.
 * Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen), in a letter to the American author, Fleur Cowles Meyer, in 1961, as quoted in Fragments (2010), by Stanley Buchthal and Bernard Comment

 * Marilyn Monroe’s suicide made headlines when I was twenty-two years old and struggling to find my place in the world. We were both working class in background, but there any comparison ended. While I was a doctor’s assistant by day and a pariah dyke wearing boys’ clothes by night, Marilyn was the most heterosexual, “most beautiful” and most desired in the public world. She was a star, she kept company with America’s biggest male stars—Mickey Mantle of baseball, Arthur Miller of literature, John F. Kennedy of politics. And at what seemed the height of a gloriously successful career, she killed herself. Or that was the story. then. Since, it has changed, from a conspiracy that she was murdered, to the more plausible reason: the accidental overdose of an addict. I was upset by her death; if she could not succeed in life, how on earth could I? And yet, her image did not fade; she continues to hold a position as an icon of sexual power.
 * Judy Grahn Interview (2021)

 * Hawks says it's wonderful we knew and worked with Marilyn before she got difficult. Because she was so winning and adorable in Monkey Business [1952]. When I drink that youth serum and I'm acting like a teenager, Marilyn really got into it. I'm diving off the high board and she's giggling and waving me on. Years later she asked me to costar in something called The Billionaire. It was a comedy and she said her husband Arthur Miller was reworking it. Arthur Miller a comedy writer? I ran away and so did Greg Peck, and the completed film,  [1960], showed she'd become all blurry and distant. It was sad.
 * Cary Grant, as quoted in Conversations with Classic Film Stars (2016) by James Bawden and Ron Miller, pp. 123–124

 * We think of Marilyn who was every man's love affair with America. Marilyn Monroe who was blonde and beautiful and had a sweet little rinky-dink of a voice and all the cleanliness of all the clean American backyards.
 * Norman Mailer, in Marilyn (1973), Ch. 1

 * There are people so vivid in life that they seem not to disappear when they die, and for many weeks I found myself having to come about and force myself to encounter the fact that Marilyn had ended. I realized that I still, even then, expected to meet her once more, somewhere, sometime, and maybe talk sensibly about all the foolishness we had been through — in which case I would probably have fallen in love with her again. And the iron logic of her death did not help much: I could still see her coming across the lawn, or touching something, or laughing, at the same time that I confronted the end of her as one might stand watching the sinking sun. When a reporter called asking if I would be attending her funeral in California, the very idea of a burial was outlandish, and stunned as I was, I answered without thinking, "She won't be there." I could hear his astonishment, but I could only hang up, it was beyond explaining.
 * Arthur Miller in Timebends: A Life (1987)

 * To have survived, she would have had to be either more cynical or even further from reality than she was. Instead, she was a poet on a street corner trying to recite to a crowd pulling at her clothes.
 * Arthur Miller in Timebends: A Life (1987)

 * The women she played were totally unreal. Her vulnerability in her flesh was as compelling and audible as a baby crying, but she played either a gold digger-the woman who can only be bought or the child/whore who asks nothing whatsoever, who is available like a tray of hors d'oeuvres at a cocktail party. In The Seven Year Itch she is the total male fantasy of available snatch, a gorgeous woman without any entanglements, no friends, no family, no demands, who wants only a married man since he won't fall in love with her. What living woman could ever identify with that character?...Her career began with the famous nude calendar, although the most lasting images are at once dressed and undressed-the pose on the subway grating, for instance. She wears a flimsy looking halter dress that flies up, deserting her. She is the embodiment of titillation. Any man can dream of possessing her, because she seems so accessible and defenseless. For a man, that image on which can be projected any fantasy, any wish fulfillment, is the source of her immense and lasting appeal. She is a living doll-the perfect body that offers everything and asks nothing. She embodies the woman who never was because she isn't anything in herself. That image was something she put on to go out into the frightening and hostile world. She had learned early that she would be rewarded if she appeared compliant and childlike, not in the sense of the virgin to be deflowered, but in the sense of the woman who doesn't understand, doesn't know what to do, never learns a lesson; the warm and sensual Galatea who never gets up and leaves Pygmalion, but waits passively for the next owner. But behind that façade was a woman needy, scared, ambitious, leaking self-hatred and desperately wanting something real and solid and important. She wanted to be...respected. She never was.
 * Marge Piercy "TABULA RASA WITH BOOBS" in My Life, My Body (2015)

 * When Marilyn Monroe got out of the game, I wrote something like, "Southern California's special horror notwithstanding, if the world offered nothing, nowhere to support or make bearable whatever her private grief was, then it is that world, and not she, that is at fault." I wrote that in the first few shook-up minutes after hearing the bulletin sandwiched in between Don and Phil Everly and surrounded by all manner of whoops and whistles coming out of an audio signal generator, like you are apt to hear on the provincial radio these days. But I don't think I'd take those words back.
 * Thomas Pynchon in a letter to Jules Siegel, published in Cavalier magazine (August 1965)

 * If Marilyn is in love with my husband it proves she has good taste, for I am in love with him too.
 * Simone Signoret, responding to rumors that her husband Yves Montand was romantically involved with Monroe. The New York Journal-American  (14 November 1960)

 * I remember her on the screen, huge as a colossus doll, mincing and whispering and simply hoping her way into total vulnerability.
 * Gloria Steinem from "Marilyn Monroe: The Woman who Died Too Soon" in Ms. magazine (August 1972); later published in Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions (1983)

It was a very complex thing working with her because she had tremendous problems with herself. She was on the edge of deep depression – whatever you want to call it – at all times. There was always a question, which you sweated out: "Is she going to show up? Is she going to show up on time? Is she going to live through the scene? Is she going to finish the picture?" And that is a very nerve-wracking thing if you've got eight million dollars in the enterprise. But when it's all done, it's well worth it. It's that old thing that I said, I don't know, four hundred years ago: "Look, if we wanted somebody to be on time and to know the lines just perfectly, I've got an old aunt in Vienna. She's going to be there at five in the morning and never miss a word. But who wants to look at her?"
 * You want me to talk about Marilyn? My God, I think there have been more books on Marilyn Monroe than on World War II, and there's a great similarity.
 * Billy Wilder, in an interview at AFI Conservatory (13 December 1970), in American Film; also in Billy Wilder: Interviews (2001), p. 113

title: Marilyn Monroe


text:
Mike Godwin

Michael Wayne Godwin (born October 26, 1956) is an American attorney and author. He was the first staff counsel of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and was general counsel for the Wikimedia Foundation between July 2007 and October 2010.

Quotes

 * As an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.
 * Popularly known as Godwin's Law.

 * Let today be the first day of a new American Revolution - a Digital Revolution, a revolution built not on blood and conflict, but on language and reason and our faith in each other.
 * On conclusion of case Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union — cited in

 * I worry about my child and the Internet all the time, even though she's too young to have logged on yet. Here's what I worry about. I worry that 10 or 15 or 20 years from now she will come to me and say, "Daddy, where were you when they took freedom of the press away from the Internet?"
 * As EFF staff counsel, cited in "EFF Quotes Collection 19.6", 9 April 2001.

Cyber Rights

 * Cyber Rights: Defending Free Speech in the Digital Age. ISBN 9780262571685

 * The decisions we make about the Internet don't affect just the Internet – they are answers to basic questions about the relationship each citizen has to the government and about the extent to which we trust one another with the full range of fundamental rights granted by the Constitution.
 * Cited in

 * The remedy for the abuse of free speech is more speech.
 * Cited in

 * Striking a balance in favor of individual rights has always been the right decision for us and that it remains so even when technology gives us new ways to exercise those rights. Individual liberty has never weakened us; freedom of speech, enhanced by the Net, will only make us stronger.
 * Cited in

 * In short, individual freedom of speech leads to a stronger society. But knowing that principle is not enough. You have to know how to put it to use on the Net.
 * 17.

 * When I worked as a journalist in the 1980s, I was constantly reminded by sources of the common asumption that a newspaper or magazine article wouldn't get things right or would distort the facts to reflect a particular bias. [...] The major newspapers, magazines, and television networks, which are typically, if not always, components of larger corporate organizations, are increasingly regarded by Americans as just another special interest.
 * Chapter 1

 * But don't confuse it with the first vision of "electronic democracy" [...] one day, we were told [in 1992], we'd listen to pundits and politicians debate the issues, and then we'd vote, maybe by pointing our remotes at our TV or computer monitors. Radical pluralism is something different. It's what happens when you put the power of a mass medium—computer communications—into the hands of individual citiens who could never have afforded creative access to other mass media like TV or newspapers. Everyone is now a "content producer".
 * Chapter 1

 * It's easy for a senator or a government official to blur the line between speech that's offensive and speech that lacks social value, yet in practice it's often the offensive speech that's the most valuable.
 * Chapter 2

 * I first became aware of this larger phenomenon in the wake of the bombing of a federal office building in Oklahoma City. In the days and weeks to follow, I got dozens of calls from the press asking me whether there was legislation pending to ban bomb information on the Net. [...] In reality, of course, the "Internet as threat" meme was generated and disseminated primarily by the press itself.
 * Chapter 3

 * The more you impose such liability, the greater the incentives you create for providers to become content police, and you undermine what for many and perhaps most users is the chief value of the Net: direct communication with the rest of the world.
 * Chapter 4

 * Leaving aside the issue of whether the comments about Arata and Branham were grounded in hostility toward their gender (rather than hostility toward them as individuals), it seemed clear that what the OCR wants to ban here is not "written conduct" but speech. By classifying it as "conduct," the OCR hoped to bypass the First Amendment's protections.
 * Chapter 5

 * Perhaps the most likely scenario is this: At some near-future date, perhaps as early as 2010, individuals may no longer be able to do the kinds of things they routinely do with their digital tools in 2003. [...] You can't overestimate the extent to which the two factions are bot pro-copyright [...]. One thing the Tech Faction and the Content Faction have in common is that both supported the passage of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in 1998.
 * Chapter 7

 * [The online users reaction to the cyberporn panic] may have been far more effective than a planned event would have been, however. It had vigor, spontaneity, and popular sentiment behind it and was driven by passion and not by calculated maneuvering. And it proved the power of online communities to take on the traditional media establishment, once the playing field has been leveled. The WELL and the World Wide Web and Usenet had leveled the field.
 * Chapter 9.2

 * What adds to the uncertainty, Hansen said, is that the "defenses" provided by the statute—that is, the things you have to do to avoid criminal liability—are defined in terms of whatever filtering or screening technologies happen to be available at any given moment [...] use of "reasonable and effective measures under current technology". As a result, Hansen said, the defenses will change every time the technology changes.
 * Chapter 10

 * That is why I found the tactics of the theocratic social conservatives deeply offensive. They were afraid that their convictions about pornography were unlikely to sway the majority of citizens in this country—so afraid, in fact, that they contrived a crisis (the threat to children posed by cyperporn) and even went so far as to help craft and position a purportedly objective (but in fact fraudulent) study whose real, cynical purpose was to promote a panic-driven anti-indecency legislative agenda.
 * Chapter 11

title: Mike Godwin


text:
Wikiquote:Wikiquote

What are quotations?
Quotations are at once mundane and sublime. Whatever the philosophical stance, country, race, or religion of their origin; whether they be serious or whimsical; whether their creators are famous or notorious, controversial or celebrated, quotations are the essence of wisdom refined to a handful of well-chosen words.

They may inspire us to seek an understanding of their creators, to consider our own lives, to laugh, or merely to admire their mastery of language. However we use them, quotations summarize the collective insights of society, a legacy of knowledge passed onward, from one generation to the next.

What is Wikiquote?
Wikiquote is an accurate and comprehensive collection of notable quotations.

 * Accurate: Wikiquote strives for accuracy. We try to cite sources, preferably those in which the quotation first appears, otherwise notable attribution of the quotation. We try to find those quotes which are mistakenly attributed, correctly document them and, if possible, determine the cause of misattribution.
 * Comprehensive: Wikiquote is inclusive, and seeks quotations from many diverse people, literary works, films, memorials, epitaphs and more. We include quotations from the present and the past, and from all places.
 * Notable: We limit ourselves to quotations which are notable. A quotation can be notable because it has achieved fame due to its enduring relevance to many people, or because it is attributed to a notable individual, or appeared in a notable work.
 * Quotations: Wikiquote is a collection of quotations. For the sake of completeness, articles should have a short introduction about the topic, context, or source. However, the primary goal is to include quotations.

title: Wikiquote:Wikiquote


text:
Wikiquote talk:Wikiquote

statement
Yes, I know, melodramatic and overdone. I didn't write it, it just seemed to write itself late last night in bed after the lights went out, coming into my mind as-is, nearly fully-formed. So delete it if you like (maybe we don't want mushy stuff like that in Wikiquote, and I wouldn't particularly get upset about it), but before you do, think about what we would say to ourselves to justify the effort of compiling the world's largest compendium of quotes. Perhaps it just needs editing a bit (OK, a lot of editing). Nanobug 12:24 21 Jul 2003 (UTC)

grate page
Is page sherd win a reword for being very good. I liked reding this page good job to who rote it.

Re purposing
Although I find Nanobug's introduction satisfyingly poetic, I'm think that we might want to use this article as a means to outline specific what Wikiquote is, as a companion piece to What Wikiquote is not. We could use a straightforward collection of content expectations, as opposed to the many introductory and explanatory pages we have (and are working on), from which readers must themselves infer and synthesize the complete set of expectations. WQ:NOT isn't sufficiently illuminating, and it's better to have a positive statement than expect people to deduce the opposite of a set of negatives (although we certainly should keep WQ:NOT). Opinions? ~ Jeff Q (talk) 05:39, 17 October 2005 (UTC)

 * I agree. Following is a draft of what I would put there. ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 06:40, 17 October 2005 (UTC)

Wikiquote aims to be an accurate and comprehensive collection of notable quotations.

 * Accurate: Wikiquote aims for accuracy. Where possible, we try to site sources: preferably those in which the quotation first appears, otherwise notable attribution of the quotations. We try to find those quotes which are misattributed, clearly label them and research how the misattribution came about.
 * Comprehensive: Wikiquote aims to have quotes from many different people, literary works, films, memorials, epitaphs and so on.
 * Notable: We limit ourselves to quotations which are notable. A quotation can be notable either because it has achieved fame by itself, but more usually because it was said by someone notable, or appeared in a notable work.
 * Quotations: Wikiquote is a collection of quotations. While, for completeness, articles should have a short introduction of the topic or source, the primary goal is to include quotations.

I want to keep the current content there is on the page, and add the paragraph above beneath it. I will do so within two weeks, barring any objections (so now is the time to raise them!) ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 09:55, 15 December 2005 (UTC)

 * Looks good. I see no need to wait two weeks to add it. I think anytime in the next week would be fine. ~ Kalki 10:09, 15 December 2005 (UTC)

 * Thanks for the encouragement. I accidentally saved a new version of the page, but reverted it. I will change it once a week has passed. In the mean time, people should object if they don't think it's good :) ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 10:26, 15 December 2005 (UTC)

 * I think what you've written looks good and is a concise summary of the aims of this site. Good job. ~ UDScott 13:35, 15 December 2005 (UTC)

Well, like so many other things, this seems to fallen through the cracks, but fortunately MosheZadka made it easy to finish. We now have a page that provides newcomers with a concise summary of what Wikiquote is, rather than just what it isn't. I urge all community members to point new editors to this page whenever they find them working outside the stated goals. We should also ensure that our other policy pages and aids (e.g., Help:Contents, WQ:NOT, Template:Welcome) include this link. ~ Jeff Q (talk) 21:48, 18 February 2006 (UTC)

Context-dependent meaning of "notable"?
Should we not allow some latitude for including quotes from people who, while not generally considered notable themselves, played notable roles in the lives of the person who is the subject of an article?

Let's say we have a minor English poet of the 18th century whose wife came up with some choice quotes about him. Would such quotes be used in a "quotes by others about X poet" section? She is not notable herself, but certainly a notable person in our poet's life.

Enough with hypotheticals. The specific example I want to draw attention to is Adi Da, a minor and controversial American guru. Adi Da is fundamentally famous for having influenced new-age author Ken Wilber and for having been the subject of negative media coverage in 1985 when allegations of all sorts of naughtiness (sexual, financial abuse, etc) hit the airwaves (see Wikipedia article on Adi Da. I believe that it is appropriate to include a quote from one of the central figures in that controversy.  The person's name is Mark Miller and his quote is on this version of the Adi Da Wikiquote page (third quote under "quotes of others").  Feedback appreciated.  Is it good to qualify the "notable" policy this way, or are such things better worked into the main Wikipedia entry on the subject? Carry18 07:25, 30 April 2006 (UTC)

 * Quotes about a notable person by someone not quite as notable are sometimes cited. I would suggest that the most important element is adding such a quote is to include a reliable source that allows editors to verify the quote is valid. (Please read the "reliable source" link, as "reliable" means much more than just finding a Google hit for the quote.) This is not a guarantee, but in general, the more solid the source, the less likely someone will delete the quote. ~ Jeff Q (talk) 20:27, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

 * About sections are for people who watch a lot of credits and read a lot of references. It's really only certain intangible themes where notability is a big issue; you could even use a consumer product manufacturer for a common consumer product. A lot of scientists don't have Wikipedia pages yet, unlike soccer players; but their work is usually so revolutionary that you know it is going to be quoted in future science textbooks at least. There's a lot of Ken Burns quotes where he doesn't provide the persons name, presumably because they weren't themselves memorable but had a good insight into a particular event, typically disasters or crime. Hope that helps. CensoredScribe (talk) 22:55, 15 April 2016 (UTC)

Copyright issues
We are getting more and more folks who don't know or care about adding so much material to our articles that they become copyright violations. I think it advisable that we revise this highly visible page to not only avoid the idea that more is always better (i.e., an unqualified "comprehensive"), but to specfically point out that we collect pithy excerpts, not entire works. ~ Jeff Q (talk) 20:30, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
 * Agreed. But I prefer to keep this document itself as concise as possible.
 * Also I wonder if we are better to add "free-licensed" a/o "in NPOV". We don't include WQ:NPOV in our welcome message, but when we are growing, it would be problematic (even on Wikipedia, I still prefer to greet a mere welcome though). However we have not to talk here what is NPOV - just put a sentence "NPOV" and give a link. As same, we can indicate why the whole copy isn't within our scope to the document led here, for example, WQ:COPY. --Aphaia 03:00, 17 May 2007 (UTC)

...

 * I don't know what this means. There is a link to a blogger page which doesn't help. Can this be removed, or moved, or rephrased or something? --FeralOink (talk) 22:55, 14 August 2013 (UTC)

 * Deleted. Whatever that was, it isn't relevant anymore ('was probably just spam). ~ DanielTom (talk) 23:59, 14 August 2013 (UTC)

Time to update this page?
Since this page was developed in 2003 and expanded in 2005, there have been some fundamental changes in Wikiquote practices that are not reflected here. It is still a very fine statement of what Wikiquote is about, if taken in the right spirit, but it is subject to interpretations (not to say wikilawyering) that do not accord with more recent developments. In particular: It has been argued that this means we don't have to. In the early days of the project we did not try very hard, and it was customary for articles to include entire sections of un-sourced attributions. More recently, as reflected in updates to WQ:SAU and WQ:SOURCE, we have been requiring citations and working to remove un-sourced attributions. It has been argued that this means anything from a notable person or work is inherently quotable because of the source. This does not appear to be what was meant originally, and subsequent efforts have been made to clarify this at WQ:Q. It is a subjective quality that is difficult to nail down in a few words. If there is support for updating this page then I will draft some new language for the community to consider, and I would be interested in other suggestions. Item 1 is easy enough to update, but it will be challenging to make item 2 concise without being unduly narrow or unmeaningfully broad. ~ Ningauble 17:48, 3 January 2012 (UTC)
 * 1) "Where possible, we try to cite sources...."
 * 1) "A quotation can be notable ... because it was said by someone notable, or appeared in a notable work."

 * I took the liberty of updating the page. Please see the diff between my final edit and the most recent prior version.

 * My changes were incremental, and mostly corrected grammar and style. I broke out the page, changed format slightly for purposes of consistency and clarity. There is a difference in meaning between quote and quotation, so I corrected that. I also wanted to reinforce the fact that Wikiquote is intended to be globally inclusive, in time and place, and whether the source/ creator wrote or spoke the original words.

 * I was BOLD, although I don't see that invocation any longer, to be BOLD. If I was too BOLD, please revert or turn my volume down a few notches ;o) I will not take offense! --FeralOink (talk) 00:25, 15 August 2013 (UTC)

 * Very fine edits, I daresay.
 * Only one note from me: the old version, "quotations are the essence of wisdom refined in a handful of well-chosen words", sounds better to my ears, compared to your change, "quotations are the essence of wisdom refined to a handful of well-chosen words." The rest of your changes are all very good, methinks. Excellent job. ~ DanielTom (talk) 00:43, 15 August 2013 (UTC)

grammar
"whether they be serious or whimsical; whether their creators are famous or notorious..." Inconsistent, no? ~ DanielTom (talk) 18:54, 3 April 2016 (UTC)
 * I don't think parallel construction is strictly necessary, since the subjects of the two clauses are different. I might phrase it differently myself, but the subjective mood is often not conjugated in contemporary English (a situation that may be perplexing to native speakers of languages that routinely do so) and, except in the case of imperatives, is best used sparingly. I think it is really a matter of style and taste rather than grammatical correctness. ~ Ningauble (talk) 13:08, 5 April 2016 (UTC)

Is this page an essay, guideline, policy, or something else?
Asking for a friend. Butwhatdoiknow (talk) 11:45, 20 October 2017 (UTC)

 * If it is not marked as an essay, guideline, policy then it is not one of those. It is just a wikiquote page like any other, giving some information about the project. --Jedi3 (talk) 11:01, 24 April 2018 (UTC)

Add "quality" to answer to "What is Wikiquote"?
The current answer is: I propose changing that to: And to change: To: This change would bring this Wikiquote generic page more in line with the Quotability guideline page. See Quotability. Butwhatdoiknow (talk) 19:33, 25 August 2018 (UTC)
 * "Wikiquote is an accurate and comprehensive collection of notable quotations."
 * "Wikiquote is an accurate and comprehensive collection of quality notable quotations."
 * Notable: We limit ourselves to quotations which are notable. A quotation can be notable because it has achieved fame due to its enduring relevance to many people, or because it is attributed to a notable individual, or appeared in a notable work.
 * Quality Notable: We limit ourselves to quotations which are notable. A quotation can be notable because it (1) has achieved fame due to its enduring relevance to many people, (2) is attributed to a notable individual, or (3) appears in a notable work. In the latter two cases the quote must also demonstrate a level of quantity (wit, pith, wisdom, eloquence, or poignancy).

 * Oops. Make that proposed change be "... must also demonstrate a level of quality (wit ..." Butwhatdoiknow (talk)

 * Oppose - too subjective. The "Quality" excuse has been used to remove notable quotes that one personally doesn't like (e.g. for religious reasons). "Quality Notable" is not even English. ~ DanielTom (talk) 18:25, 28 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Thank you for responding. "Quality Notable" can be fixed. Regarding the substance of your opposition: Do you believe my proposed change misstates Quotability guideline? Butwhatdoiknow (talk) 19:46, 28 August 2018 (UTC)
 * As you say, that's just a guideline, not policy. And anyway, Wikiquote already defines quotations as "the essence of wisdom refined to a handful of well-chosen words". ~ DanielTom (talk) 20:07, 28 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Hmm. Maybe the problem is with the "Quotations" bullet point in the "What is Wikiquote?" section on this page. What do you think of moving the content of the "What are quotations?" section into that bullet point? Butwhatdoiknow (talk) 20:28, 28 August 2018 (UTC)
 * I think Wikiquote is fine the way it is. There is nothing wrong with defining "quotations" at the outset. ~ DanielTom (talk) 20:45, 28 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Well, let's try this: You say that quality has been used as an excuse to remove notable quotes. I say that the failure to mention quality (or even refer back to the "What are quotations?" section) in the "What is Wikiquote?" section) has been used to support low-quality (that is, not notable) quotes from notable people. Why shouldn't we try to fix that problem as well? Butwhatdoiknow (talk) 22:44, 28 August 2018 (UTC)

Low-quality quotes of TV-series and computer games
The main problem: the low-quality quotes of TV-series and computer games. There should be only two quotations per episode, but it's obvious that nobody cares of this rule.--Risto hot sir (talk) 22:51, 28 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Do you have any opinion regarding the proposed change? Butwhatdoiknow (talk) 23:13, 28 August 2018 (UTC)
 * Well, Just a Regular New Yorker tried to clean the Top Gear, but only this one site seems to need endless work.--Risto hot sir (talk) 23:39, 28 August 2018 (UTC)

Alternative propoal
I suggest we change "Wikiquote is a collection of quotations." to "Wikiquote is a collection of quotations (as defined above)." Butwhatdoiknow (talk) 03:01, 5 September 2018 (UTC)
 * Not necessary, in my opinion. The page already states that Wikiquote is a "collection of notable quotations". To address your concern: when the notability of a particular quotation is challenged, perhaps a secondary source (that quotes it) could be required. ~ DanielTom (talk) 22:29, 13 September 2018 (UTC)
 * I am intrigued by your "secondary source" suggestion. Is that something that should be discussed here or at Quotability? Butwhatdoiknow (talk) 19:14, 16 September 2018 (UTC)
 * Perhaps not "necessary" (few things are), but informative and helpful. After stating a "collection of notable quotations" the page then defines "notable" but not "quotations." My proposal helps the reader find the definition (which is above a "collection of notable quotations." Butwhatdoiknow (talk) 19:14, 16 September 2018 (UTC)

Time to unprotect this page?
Discussed here: Administrators%27_noticeboard Butwhatdoiknow (talk) 21:05, 24 November 2018 (UTC)

Should WQ:Quotability be policy?
See discussion at Village_pump. Butwhatdoiknow (talk) 16:07, 2 May 2019 (UTC)
 * No one has objected so far. If you object now is the time to speak out. Butwhatdoiknow (talk) 06:02, 2 June 2019 (UTC)
 * @Butwhatdoiknow: No this is not a policy. No consensus was reached by the community to make it a policy.
 * Just because no one posted an objecion at the time does not make it into a policy. IMIO you should not have posted a tag claiming this page is an official policy. I would have reverted your change if I was endowed with revert-abilities.
 * Sorry for having to be so blunt. I know you have good intentions. Ottawahitech (talk) 22:19, 2 December 2023 (UTC)
 * Well, I guess you told me! Only one problem, "this" page is Wikiquote, not Quotability. As it turns out, someone did revert the "policy" template off of Quotability shortly after I added it there. - Butwhatdoiknow (talk) 02:22, 3 December 2023 (UTC)

@Butwhatdoiknow: I see that in 2019 you have also single-handedly added Fictional characters to the list of policies? At least this is what it looks like to a newbie like me? Can you please shed some hstorical-light on this. Thanks in advance, Ottawahitech (talk) 19:44, 25 February 2024 (UTC)
 * In the link you provide I'm adding the Template:Policylist to Fictional characters, not the other way around. That said, I did add Fictional characters to Policylist, but as guideline, not a policy. - Butwhatdoiknow (talk) 21:52, 26 February 2024 (UTC)

Shortcut WQ:WQ redirects elsewhere
WQ:Wikiquote and WQ:Shortcuts both say that WQ:WQ is a shortcut for WQ:Wikiquote -- which seems logical enough. However, WQ:WQ actually seems to redirect to WQ:Shortcuts instead. Can someone sort this out, and correct the inconsistency among these pages? Thanks. — 173.56.111.206 10:07, 19 March 2024 (UTC)

title: Wikiquote talk:Wikiquote


text:
User talk:Hephaestos~enwikiquote

Yes it is taking a while to get a community of Wikiquote editors together.

You are doing great on all the new contributions. Don't go away!

Don't forget to check the template.

 * I'm not going away, but I might be slowing down a bit. :)  I'm glad there's a template. - Hephaestos 15:11 23 Jul 2003 (UTC)

Harry Emerson Fosdick
I have added a "" template to the article Harry Emerson Fosdick, suggesting that it be deleted according to the proposed deletion process. All contributions are appreciated, but it may not satisfy Wikiquote's criteria for inclusion, for the reasons given in the deletion notice (see also "What Wikiquote is not" and Wikiquote's deletion policy). You may contest the proposed deletion by removing the  notice, but please explain why you disagree with the proposed deletion in your edit summary or on its talk page. Also, please consider improving the article to address the issues raised. Even though removing the deletion notice will prevent deletion through the proposed deletion process, the article may still be deleted if it matches any of the speedy deletion criteria or it can be sent to Votes for deletion, where it may be deleted if consensus to delete is reached. Ole.Holm 16:46, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

Your account will be renamed
Hello,

The developer team at Wikimedia is making some changes to how accounts work, as part of our on-going efforts to provide new and better tools for our users like cross-wiki notifications. These changes will mean you have the same account name everywhere. This will let us give you new features that will help you edit and discuss better, and allow more flexible user permissions for tools. One of the side-effects of this is that user accounts will now have to be unique across all 900 Wikimedia wikis. See the announcement for more information.

Unfortunately, your account clashes with another account also called Hephaestos. To make sure that both of you can use all Wikimedia projects in future, we have reserved the name Hephaestos~enwikiquote that only you will have. If you like it, you don't have to do anything. If you do not like it, you can pick out a different name.

Your account will still work as before, and you will be credited for all your edits made so far, but you will have to use the new account name when you log in.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Yours, Keegan Peterzell Community Liaison, Wikimedia Foundation 23:24, 17 March 2015 (UTC)

Renamed
 This account has been renamed as part of single-user login finalisation. If you own this account you can |log in using your previous username and password for more information. If you do not like this account's new name, you can choose your own using this form after logging in: . -- Keegan (WMF) (talk) 05:48, 19 April 2015 (UTC)

title: User talk:Hephaestos~enwikiquote