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About "A Commonplace Book" |
I collect here things as I read them. The selections are those I find particularly beautiful or insightful or funny or just plain memorable. I record them here for myself so that I can get back to them easily since, for me, "memorable" does not always translate into "I have memorized it."
I do not select quotations based on length. Though brevity is often eloquent, I like to include the context of that memorable phrase. Also, I am skeptical of the way in which people often use quotes to avoid thinking or saying things in their own way (2). And I loathe bumper-sticker thinking. So, there are some quite lengthy quotes here and many of moderate length in addition to short quotes.
Sources: The collection includes a growing number of selections from films (where I try to credit the screenwriter whenever possible); a little poetry and song lyrics; a lot from novels (mostly English language, but some translations); a fair amount of non-fiction, particularly things that relate to information, computing (alas, there are so many of these around on the Internet because of the nature of the folks on the Internet; nevertheless, here are some more...), and communications and related fields. I also include inspirational quotes from almost any source if they remind me of something more than the slogan itself. There are a good number of quotes from the Tao te Ching. Ram Das said,
This project is, for me, quite organic: I add quotes as often as I can and the overall collection begins to subtly change character. I like to think of the collection as a whole as a story that I (or now, you) can read in many different ways. I have linked some quotes about particular topics (5 "Browse quotes about...") since keyword searching is often not the best way to find a quote on a topic. I'll add more to those topics and more topics as time goes on.
I am a librarian, so I prefer to give a citation that is at least accurate (though i don't attempt to create citations that conform to a technical standard). Unfortunately, I have gathered many quotations second-hand and do not have source information for many of them. I will add source information and welcome any additions or suggestions you might have.
Finally, since I use this as my place to test HTML, CSS, XML, indexing and searching tools, and similar technical toys, the appearance and even functionality of A Commonplace Book will change from time to time without notice.