Customer Reviews
Quotesville - By: Bianca White, 04 Aug 2008 
A wonderfully engrossing tome. Time zips by as you turn page after page of the witty, the profound & the historical soundbites uttered by the great, the good & the infamous. A book for both pastime & education.
An essential reference, but... - By: Mr. Nicholas J Robertson, 05 Apr 2008 
I would not be without this reference book, & enjoy an occasional "flick through" it to read the erudite, profound or witty sayings or writings of men & women from throughout history to the present day, not to mention some anonymous ones, advertising slogans & catchphrases. The first quoted may be Homer, from the 8th Century BC, although some verses from the bible are probably the oldest expressions listed.
I find it less successful when I am trying to identify who it was who first used an expression or saying, but this must inevitably be the case. While biased towards the English language - there are 50 pages of Shakespeare's alone - there are quotations from the whole world, & evenin 850 pages or so (the index occupies another 300 pages) no one can realistically include more than a small proportion.
I do wonder, therefore, why the editors include the Latin as well as the English translations of those quotations that originatedin that language, but not, generally, the French, German or other foreign langauges of others.
While Wikipedia & the internet is a valuable resource as well, this is not a book that you will ever regret buying.
A must for all writers - By: Brian Levine, 29 Jul 2007 Its very size is comforting: my old one was becoming dog-eared so I investedin a new one. I find it difficult to believe there aren't more reviews of this because I would have thought it almost essential for anyone writing a book, screenplay, article, short story or speech, especially for material out of copyright.
Yes, the internet can be useful but is rarely authoritative. This is. If you're serious about the creation of literary worksin whatever form, avoid this at your peril...
A quote!! A quote!! My kingdom for a quote!! - By: , 01 Jan 2006 This is the most amazing collection of quotations I have got my hands on. Look up quotes by keywords, by the authors or partial phrase if you only sort of know how it goes but want to read the whole quote.
Worth every penny & it will be a long time getting through it!
Best choice for Brits - By: Dennis Littrell, 07 Oct 2003 The question for most people looking to purchase a book of quotations is whether to get Bartlett's Familiar Quotations or The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations. So perhaps it would be a good idea to compare them & see which might better meet your needs.
Both are important works of reference; both are authoritative. Bartlett's latest edition, the 17th is from 2002 while this, the latest Oxford, is from 1999 with a reprint with corrections from 2001. So both are relatively up to date. Bartlett's is a slightly larger book with perhaps 300 more pages; however the number of actual quotations is not that different. Both books quote over 3,000 authors & contain over 20,000 quotations.
The most significant difference between them, to my mind, is thatin the Oxford, English authors are favored bothin terms of number included & entries by, which is to be expected since the Oxford is an British publication while Bartlett's is an American publication. A quick check shows that British mathematician & philosopher Bertram Russell, for example, has more entriesin the Oxford than he doesin Bartlett's, whereas both Mark Twain & the Baltimore sage, H. L. Mencken, have more entriesin Bartlett's than they doin the Oxford. France's Voltaire commands just about the same spacein either book.
The next most important difference is that the quotations are presented alphabetically by authorin the Oxford while Bartlett's presents them chronologically beginning with the oldest. Both sources give author's dates. Personally I find the alphabetical arrangement preferable because it often saves me a trip to the alphabetical "Index of Authors"in Bartlett's that I have to make before finding the author I am interested in. When one is looking for a quote by keyword, which often happens, Bartlett's is slightly to be preferred. Its Index is definitely longer (accounting for most of the differencein length between the books) & it is more extensively cross-referenced. In looking up Marx's "From each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs" I found the quotein the Oxford from the keywords "according," "abilities," & "needs." In Bartlett's "according" did not work, but "each," "abilities," & "needs" did. So that was a standoff. However I found the Golden Rule & its sourcein Bartlett's without any trouble by looking under "Golden Rule" & under "do unto." In the Oxford neither "Golden Rule" nor "do unto" werein the Index of keywords. Both books give Matthew 7:12 as the source.
The Oxford has a slightly more international approach to religious texts. There is a little less of the Bible here, but more of the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, the Koran, & other non-Christian texts, except for the Tao Te Ching from Lao Tzu where Bartlett's has 34 entries to 19 for the Oxford.
Another feature that the Oxford has that will be handy for some is its "Special Categories" which are "Advertising Slogans" (mostly for products soldin the UK), "Misquotations," "Newspaper Headlines & Leaders," "Political Slogans & Songs," & fifteen more. These are text boxes appearing alphabetically among the quotations. Curiously they give the rather staid Oxford reputation a bit of a colloquial feel that may surprise some people.
So how to choose between these two very excellent works of reference? I like them both & if I had to part with either, I would reluctantly let the Oxford go. However if I were English I would part with Bartlett's & keep the Oxford. I really think they are that closein quality. For a secondary consideration, I would prefer the Oxford since its slightly smaller size is a bit handier, especially when balanced on one's chest as one readsin bed!
Bottom line: no serious writer (especially of literature, culture & history) should be without either this or Bartlett's. Next to a dictionary a book of quotations is my most consulted work of reference. To solve the dilemma, I recommend that you splurge & get them both!
