“I respect a man who can recognize a quotation. It's a dying art.”
Part IV, ch. 1, p. 245.
Small World (1984)
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.
“I respect a man who can recognize a quotation. It's a dying art.”
Part IV, ch. 1, p. 245.
Small World (1984)
1870s, Society and Solitude (1870), Quotation and Originality
Source: Prose and Poetry
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
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
“Classical quotation is the parole of literary men all over the world.”
May 8, 1781
Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol IV
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