Monday, February 1, 2010

I'm Quoting Here


"People will accept your ideas much more readily
if you tell them Benjamin Franklin said it first."
—David H. Comins


I began, "Her long ears dragged in the dirt as she hid amongst the flowers. It was fitting because my dog's name was Flower." Mr. Greaves, my 8th grade speech teacher, interrupted to remind me that the assignment was to start a speech with a quotation. So I improvised: "Someone once said, 'Her long ears dragged in the dirt as she hid amongst the flowers.' It was fitting . . ." Instantly my words rang with authority. I was quoting.

Here are a few of my favorites:
  1. "Careful grooming may take twenty years off a woman's age, but you can't fool a flight of stairs."—Marlene Dietrich
  2. "An archeologist is the best husband any woman can have: the older she gets, the more interested he is in her."—Agatha Christie
  3. "I'm tired of all this nonsense about beauty being only skin-deep. That's deep enough. What do you want—an adorable pancreas?"—Jean Kerr
  4. "I want my children to have all the things I couldn't afford. Then I want to move in with them."—Phyllis Diller
  5. "Experience is what you get when you don't get what you wanted."—Ann Landers
Quotations are great to back up your opinion, to add a touch of humor, to get you thinking, or to give you something to do while you're procrastinating your writing project.

These are some of my go-to sites:

Quoteland.com

Amusing Quotes

Brain Candy Quotations


*Homework:

~Find a quote you disagree with and write a post about it.

~Collect ten quotes on your subject, print them out in a cool font, and hang them on your inspiration board.

~Perfect one of your own sayings so everybody else will quote it. "They're all too self-absorbed to pay any attention to me."—Stie


4 comments:

Tiffany said...

You always have the best quotes! I love the story about your speech, and thanks for sharing your quote sources!

the wrath of khandrea said...

this post cracked me up.
here's my favorite quote:

"it's a dog eat dog world, and i'm wearing milkbone underwear."

-norm petersen, cheers.

Kay Dennison said...

I think the best quote site is thinkexist.com (http://thinkexist.com/quotes/)

It's easy to search for whatever one needs (author/title/topic/key words) and you can even save your favorites in an online 'book'. And best of all it's free!

I can't write without it.

marta said...

i love collecting quotes myself. thanks for the inspiration and the shout out link! i've gotten a few sales thanks to you! xo.