Quotations

I like to collect quotations. In my first waste book I started with a penciled classic teenager sentiment: “Loneliness is the element of great spirits” (Queen Kristina of Sweden), soon followed by more cheerful Nietzsche quotes and standard math jokes.

I think Mehmet Murat ildan got it right when he wrote “In the garden of literature, the highest and the most charismatic flowers are always the quotations.” Quotations are neat turns of phrase, elegant paradoxes, rude jokes or revealing anecdotes: they have charisma compared to the surrounding lawn of text. That charisma is unrelated to truth or usefulness, but it makes you want to put them in a vase, waste book or website.

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