The present "Book of Quotations" was undertaken in the belief that,
notwithstanding the many excellent compilations of the kind already in
existence, there was room for another that should glean its materials
from a wider area, and that should have more respect to the
requirements, both speculative and practical, of the times we live in.
The wide-spread materials at command had never yet been collected into a
single volume, and certain modern writings, fraught with a wisdom that
supremely deserves our regard, had hardly been quarried in at all.
The Editor has therefore studied to compile a more comprehensive
collection; embracing something of this wisdom, which naturally bears
more directly on the interests of the present day. To these interests
the Editor has all along had an eye, and he has been careful to collect,
from ancient sources as well as modern, sayings that seem to reveal an
insight into them, and bear pertinently upon them; they are such as are
specified on the title-page, and they are one and all more than passing
ones. The aphorisms which wise men have uttered on these vital topics
can never fail to deserve our regard, and they will prove edifying to
us, even should we, led by a higher wisdom, be inclined to say nay to
them. For, as it has been said, "The errors of a wise man are more
instructive than the truths of a fool. The wise man travels in lofty,
far-seeing regions; the fool in low-lying, high-fenced lanes; retracing
the footsteps of the former, to discover where he deviated, whole
provinces of the universe are laid open to us; in the path of the
latter, granting even that he has not deviated at all, little is laid
open to us but two wheel-ruts and two hedges."
The quotations collected in this book, (particularly those bearing on
the vital interests referred to,) are, it will be generally admitted,
the words of wise men; therefore the Editor has endeavoured to ascertain
and give the names of their authors, when not known. For, though the
truth and worth of the sayings are nowise dependent on their authorship,
it is well to know who those were that felt the burden they express,
and found relief in uttering them. What was of moment to them, may well
be of moment to others, and must be worthy of all regard and well
deserving of being laid to heart.
Except in the case of quotations from Shakespeare, the reader will
observe that the Editor has quoted only the names of the authors or the
books from which they are taken, and has not, as might be expected of
him, supplied either chapter or verse. The reason is, he did not think
it worth the labour and expense that would have been involved in doing
so, while the quotations given are for most part independent of the
context, and are perfectly intelligible in their own light. They are all
more or less of an aphoristic quality, and the meaning and application
are evident to any one who understands the subject of which they treat.
As for the other qualities of these quotations, they will be found to be
in general brief in expression and pointed in application, and not a few
of them winged as well as barbed. A great many are pregnant in meaning;
suggest more than they express; and are the coinage of minds of no
ordinary penetration and grasp of thought. While some of them are so
simple that a child might understand them, there are others that border
on regions in which the clearest-headed and surest-footed might stumble
and come to grief.
The collection might have been larger; the quarry of the literature of
the present century alone might have supplied materials for as big a
book. But the Editor's task was to produce a work that should embrace
gleanings from different fields of literature, and he could only
introduce from that of the present day as much as his limits allowed.
Yet, though the quantity given is no index of the quantity available,
the Editor hopes the reader will allow that his selection has not been
made in the dark, and that what he has given is of the true quality, as
well as enough in quantity for most readers to digest. If the quality be
good, the quantity is of little account, for what has been said of
Reason may be said of Wisdom which is its highest expression: "Whoso
hath any, hath access to the whole."
A word of explanation in regard to the Arrangement and the appended
Index:--
The Arrangement adopted may not at once commend itself, but it was found
to be the best; a topical one would have been too cumbersome, as, in
that case, it would have been frequently necessary to introduce the same
quotation under several different heads. The arrangement, it will be
seen, is alphabetical, and follows the order of the initial letters of
the initial word or words.
The Index, which is topical, was rendered necessary in consequence of
the arrangement followed, and, though a copious one, it only refers to
subjects of which there is anything of significance said. It does not
include mottoes, and rarely proverbs; for, apart from the difficulty of
indexing the latter, the attempt would almost have doubled the size of
the book, and rendered it altogether unwieldy. The Index, too, is
limited to subjects that are not in the alphabetical order in the body
of the book. Thus there was no need to index what is said on "Art," on
p. 18, on "Beauty," on p. 26, or on "Christianity," on pp. 42, 43, as
the reader will expect to find something concerning them where they
occur in the order adopted.
With these preliminary explanations the Editor leaves his book--the
pleasant labour of more than three years--in the hands of the public,
assured that they will judge of it by its own merits, and that they will
be generous enough to acquit him of having compiled either a superfluous
or an unserviceable work.