“In the dying world I come from, quotation is a national vice.”

Source: The Loved One (1948), Chapter 9
Context: In the dying world I come from, quotation is a national vice. No one would think of making an after-dinner speech without the help of poetry. It used to be the classics, now it's lyric verse.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "In the dying world I come from, quotation is a national vice." by Evelyn Waugh?
Evelyn Waugh photo
Evelyn Waugh 123
British writer 1903–1966

Related quotes

“I respect a man who can recognize a quotation. It's a dying art.”

David Lodge (1935) writer

Part IV, ch. 1, p. 245.
Small World (1984)

Ralph Waldo Emerson photo

“Every book is a quotation; and every house is a quotation out of all forests and mines and stone-quarries; and every man is a quotation from all his ancestors.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

1870s, Society and Solitude (1870), Quotation and Originality
Source: Prose and Poetry

“The wisdom of the wise and the experience of the ages is preserved into perpetuity by a nation's proverbs, fables, folk sayings and quotations.”

William Feather (1889–1981) Publisher, Author

Attributed in Zebras & Picket Fences (2008) by Jakob Weiss; if this is a statement by Feather, it clearly derives from the earlier remarks of Isaac D'Israeli: "The wisdom of the wise, and the experience of ages, may be preserved by quotation." Since at least 1986 a paraphrased form misattributed to his son Benjamin Disraeli has also often been quoted: "The wisdom of the wise and the experience of the ages are perpetuated by quotations."
Disputed

Margaret Thatcher photo

“In my lifetime all our problems have come from mainland Europe and all the solutions have come from the English-speaking nations across the world.”

Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British stateswoman and politician

Speech to Scottish Tories in 1999 http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Did+they+REALLY+say+that%3F+AS+A+SHORTLIST+IS+COMPILED+OF+THE+YEAR%27S...-a0109790331
Post-Prime Ministerial

Samuel Johnson photo

“Classical quotation is the parole of literary men all over the world.”

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer

May 8, 1781
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol IV

Ralph Waldo Emerson photo

“I hate quotations.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
Eric Garcetti photo

“It's extraordinary to see these graduates who come from all 50 states. They come from over 50 countries and they're here in Manchester today. It's the face of the world as it looks. The face of the nation as it is today.”

Eric Garcetti (1971) American politician

Southern New Hampshire University College of Online & Continuing Education commencement address
quoted by Cherise Leclerc of WMUR-TV https://www.wmur.com/article/rumored-2020-contender-la-mayor-eric-garcetti-speaks-at-snhu-graduation/20676696 (May 13, 2018)
2018

Nicole Krauss photo

Related topics