“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)
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.”
David Lodge (1935) writer
Part IV, ch. 1, p. 245.
Small World (1984)
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
1870s, Society and Solitude (1870), Quotation and Originality
Source: Prose and Poetry
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 (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 <br class="br">Post-Prime Ministerial
“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
Evan Esar (1899–1995) American writer
20,000 Quips & Quotes, Introduction, pviii
Eric Garcetti (1971) American politician
Southern New Hampshire University College of Online & Continuing Education commencement address <br class="br">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) <br class="br">2018