433 lines
17 KiB
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433 lines
17 KiB
Plaintext
Newsgroups: alt.quotations,alt.answers,news.answers
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Path: bloom-beacon.mit.edu!hookup!news.kei.com!eff!news.umbc.edu!europa.eng.gtefsd.com!howland.reston.ans.net!gatech!swrinde!sgiblab!brunix!doorknob.cs.brown.edu!jgm
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From: jgm@cs.brown.edu (Jonathan Monsarrat)
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Subject: Quotations monthly FAQ v1.01 08-02-93
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Content-Type: text
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Message-ID: <JGM.94Apr11234903@chekov.cs.brown.edu>
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Followup-To: poster
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Summary: Welcome to alt.quotations! This is the Quotations FAQ.
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Sender: news@cs.brown.edu
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Reply-To: jgm@cs.brown.edu (Jonathan Monsarrat)
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Organization: Dept. of Computer Science, Brown University
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Mime-Version: 1.0
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Date: Tue, 12 Apr 1994 04:49:03 GMT
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Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.Edu
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Expires: Thu, 12 May 1994 00:00:00 GMT
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Lines: 414
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Xref: bloom-beacon.mit.edu alt.quotations:9764 alt.answers:2405 news.answers:17930
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Archive-name: quotations
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Last-modified: 1993/08/02
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Version: 1.01
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-- Welcome to Alt.Quotations --
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The Quotations FAQ v1.01
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Jonathan Monsarrat (jgm@cs.brown.edu)
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Michael Moncur (mgm@world.std.com)
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This FAQ is formatted as a digest.
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Most news readers can skip from one question
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to the next by pressing control-G.
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Please help archive and index the quotes! Read the section ``The
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Quotations Archive''.
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Related FAQs: none?
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Please help fix the FAQ! Comments and questions should be mailed to
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jgm@cs.brown.edu. Additional books or book comments should be
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mailed to mgm@world.std.com.
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This FAQ and the indexes are available by anonymous ftp to
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wilma.cs.brown.edu:pub/alt.quotations. The FAQ comes in ASCII,
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LaTeX, DVI, and PostScript formats.
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Table of Contents
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1 About alt.quotations
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2 What to Expect
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3 What is a Quote?
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4 The Quotations Archive
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5 How to Help with the Quotations Archive
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6 Other ftp sites
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7 Books
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Subject: 1 About alt.quotations
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Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
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---George Santayana (1863-1952)
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Welcome to alt.quotations! This newsgroup is for sharing and
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discussing quotations of all sorts. If you are searching for a
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reference, looking for a book, or want a forum to share your
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favorite quotes, this newsgroup is for you. This FAQ posts some
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general guidelines and answers some questions that we see
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frequently, so that hopefully those who cannot remember the past
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are not condemned to repost it.
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Some quotes from this newsgroup are indexed and archived in an ftp
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site. More on this below.
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Subject: 2 What to Expect
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On alt.quotations you will find quotes from movies, plays, books,
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television shows, and lectures. There are quips from parties,
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orations from great literature, slices from computer manuals and
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source code, humor from around the globe, famous last words, and
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quotes about quotes. There are quotations from Monty Python, The
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Princess Bride, Ronald Reagan, Star Trek, Jack Handey, Mark Twain,
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and Shakespeare. There are quotations about UFOs, the devil, sex,
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money, cats, music, and anything else. Anything goes.
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Subject: 3 What is a Quote?
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A quotation is a short, memorable saying by someone famous, tagged
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with an attribution. This is an ``alternative'' newsgroup and you
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should feel free to post anything you like here. However, there
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seems to be a mild consensus about what is and is not a quote.
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Posts that fit under this definition will be stored in the
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Quotations Archive.
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* Quotes should be short. Five lines (400 bytes) is a pretty hefty
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quotation. Six lines is really an excerpt. This size limitation
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applies only to the quote itself. A description of the author or
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the context of the quote can be longer.
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* Quotes should be exact. If you are not sure of your quote, please
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say so. That would make it a paraphrasing. Someone else will
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probably be able to provide the correct phrasing.
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* Quotes should have an attribution. Possible exceptions are quotes
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that are well known, but anonymous. Please give the name of the
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author, the source (book, magazine, movie, lecture), and the
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year. It would be great to have birth/death years and profession.
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For example,
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``The wise learn many things from their enemies.'' -
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Aristophanes, 450-385 B.C., Birds, 414 B.C. Aristophanes
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lived in Ancient Greece and was the greatest poet of Old
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Attic Comedy.
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* Quotes should be from someone famous. The term "famous" has many
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meanings, of course - In this context, it refers to someone who
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(a) is well known in his/her field, (b) is known to the general
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public, or (c) has received media exposure for some reason.
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* Quotes should mean something. If your quote needs to be put in
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context, then by all means describe the circumstances surrounding
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the quote. For example, Star Trek quotes often benefit from
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having a two line synopsis of the episode:
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``Sir, I MUST protest. I am NOT a merry man.'' -
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Lieutenant Worf, Star Trek: The Next Generation,
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``Q-Pid''. The omnipotent entity Q has magicked the Star
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Trek crew into a Robin Hood scene.
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* Quotes shouldn't be one-liner jokes or cliches. ``Real musicians
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don't die, they just decompose.'' is not a quote. There is no one
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to attribute. Bathroom graffiti, bumper stickers, fortune
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cookies, the Diet Coke jingle, and many other common themes fit
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in a small package. But even if they are funny that doesn't make
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them quotations.
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Quotes involving movies and television often give the names of
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the characters or the actors, even though the quote was really
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written by a professional writer. In general, give the one of the
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three that is most famous. Giving the real writer would always be
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nice.
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If you have a huge list of your favorite quotes, please take the
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time to categorize them and attribute them. Don't just post an
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unorganized list.
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Subject: 4 The Quotations Archive
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All the quotations that fit the guidelines are stored at a publicly
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available ftp site: wilma.cs.brown.edu:pub/alt.quotations/Archive.
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In the future there will be an organized index system. Right now,
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just the raw postings are available.
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The quotes are grouped primarily by subject, but there are indexes
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by author, keyword, type of source (movie, play, book), and
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meta-subject (humor is a meta-subject, humor-about-cars is a
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subject).
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Movie and television quotes have a tendency to mean nothing to
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people who haven't seen the show, and bring back fond memories to
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people who have. That doesn't make them real quotations, but since
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they are so popular, a part of the archive will be set aside for
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these media related quotes.
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The index is labeled either ``exact'', or ``incomplete''. If you
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can give the exact wording to a quote marking ``incomplete'',
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please write jgm@cs.brown.edu. We are trying to keep paraphrasing
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to a minimum.
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Here is an example of how to post a quote to alt.quotations if you
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want to make it easy to archive. All the lines have little keywords
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so that the quote can be automatically processed into the archive.
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If you follow this format, you will make life much easier for me.
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Please note that the quotation is clearly marked as separate from
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the introduction with the ``Quote:'' tag.
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Newsgroups: alt.quotations
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From: drwho@athena.mit.edu (Dr. Who)
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Subject: Tennyson on love, Bacon on fear
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My favorite quote I discovered in high school. It still rings a chord
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with me. Anyone know any other good Tennyson quotes?
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Quote:
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'Tis better to have loved and lost
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Than never to have loved at all.
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Author: Alfred Lord Tennyson, (1809-1892)
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Ref: Im Memoriam, 1850, line 27, stanza 4.
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Keywords: love, exact
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% Im Memoriam was written in memory of Arthur Henry Hallam.
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% Tennyson was an English poet. By the middle of the 19th century he
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% was firmly established as the voice of the age, and was made Poet
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% Laureate in 1850.
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I don't know the year of the book on the next one, so I've marked it
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incomplete. I think the original quote is in Latin. Anybody know
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whether this is Francis or Roger Bacon?
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Quote:
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Dolendi modus, timendi non item.
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(to suffering there is a limit; to fearing, none.)
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Author: Bacon
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Ref: Of Seditions and Troubles
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Keywords: fear, incomplete
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-The Doctor
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----- Department of Bat Radioendoscopy ---- drwho@athena.mit.edu ------
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------------------- ``He who laughs last laughs best''--------------------
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Basically, the quotation begins anywhere after ``Quote:''. The
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author and birth/death information is listed after ``Author:'' and
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the source is listed after ``Ref:''. You can put some keywords
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after ``Keywords:'' if you like. Whether the quote is exact or a
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incomplete should go here. If you want to add comments about the
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quote for context, or to explain who the author is or what the
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sources is, put a '%' at the beginning of each line to indicate a
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comment.
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At the end of the comments, the text is ignored unless a second
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``Quote:'' is found, at which point a new quotation begins.
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If you're REALLY unsure of your quote, or if you don't know who
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said it, don't include these headers at all; just ask about it, and
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most likely someone will respond with an exact quote.
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For now, I have been hand parsing these files. As soon as we can, I
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will get help with this large task. Sorry for all the bureaucracy,
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but things will run more smoothly and better for everyone if we
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place tags on the text that let me partially automate the process.
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Subject: 5 How to Help with the Quotations Archive
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Jon is in search of ``Bibliophiles'' who would act as the Oracle
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Priests do for rec.humor.oracle. Bibliophiles would be emailed a
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portion of the quotes posted to alt.quotations. They would select
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the ones appropriate for archiving and email them back to me in the
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properly formatted form. With many bibilophiles, this would not be
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too much effort. Please send mail to jgm@cs.brown.edu if you would
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like to help.
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Our current Quotations Bibliophiles are Jonathan Monsarrat
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(jgm@cs.brown.edu) and Michael Moncur (mgm@world.std.com).
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Subject: 6 Other FTP sites
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There are no other ftp sites for quotations that we know of.
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Subject: 7 Books
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This is a bibliography of quotation books. If you have a favorite
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book of quotations, or any at all, and can add to this list, please
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send email to mgm@world.std.com. See below for more specific
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instructions.
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The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations
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Published: Original, 1941. Third edition, 1980.
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Publisher: Oxford University Press
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Editor/Author: Oxford University Press
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Scope: All quotations, chosen based on familiarity.
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This is one of the "Big Two" quotation books. Any fan of
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quotations should have it available. Like all quotation books, it
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is by no means comprehensive, but it attempts to be, and is at
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least diverse. Not a book to be read cover to cover, but a good
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reference for looking up particular quotes. Quotes are arranged
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by author. Also includes a LARGE (approx. 300 pages) and
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comprehensive subject index.
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Bartlett's Familiar Quotations
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Published: (?)
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Publisher: Bartlett (?)
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Editor/Author: (?)
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Scope: All quotations, chosen based on familiarity.
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This is the other of the "Big Two." We don't have it at this
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point, so we can't comment specifically. We'd appreciate hearing
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from somebody who has it.
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The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Quotations
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Published: 1991
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Publisher: Oxford University Press
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Editor/Author: Tony Augarde
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Scope: 20th-century quotations, chosen based on familiarity.
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A "modern" version of the Oxford Dictionary, centered on quotes
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by people who were "still alive after 1900." As such, the
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quotations in this volume may be more relevant to today's
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concerns. It is shorter than the original Oxford, probably due to
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the absence of Shakespeare and Biblical quotations.
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The Dictionary of Humorous Quotations
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Published: 1949. Was still in print in 1989.
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Publisher: Doubleday, originally. 1989 edition - Dorsett Press.
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Editor/Author: Evan Esar
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Scope: Humorous quotations, chosen by author.
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This is one of the many quotation dictionaries that are basically
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the collected "favorite quotes" of the author. It is arranged by
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author, and includes a subject index.
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The Portable Curmudgeon
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Published: 1987
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Publisher: NAL Penguin Inc. (US), New American Library of Canada
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Ltd (CA)
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Editor/Author: John Winokur
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Scope: Cynical, mostly humorous. Chosen by author.
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These are "outrageously irreverent" quotations from people the
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author considers Curmudgeons (Cynical, irascible, cantankerous).
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It is organized by subject, with additional sections devoted to
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frequently-contributing curmudgeons (W.C. Fields, Dorothy Parker,
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Fran Lebowitz, and Groucho Marx to name a few.) No index. A book
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intended to be read cover-to-cover. [ NOTE: There are two sequels
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to this work, "A Curmudgeon's garden of Love" and "The Portable
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Curmudgeon Redux". Information on these two would be appreciated,
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as we don't currently have them. ]
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The 637 Best Things Anybody Ever Said
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Published: 1982
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Publisher: Fawcett Crest / Ballantine (Random House)
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Editor/Author: Robert Byrne
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Scope: Chosen by author.
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Robert Byrne has compiled a volume of quotations which he finds
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to possess "insight, surprise, wit, pith, or punch." No attempt
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is made to be comprehensive. The quotes are arranged in
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"sequential" order, meaning that they vaguely relate to the ones
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around them. It does include an index by author and subject,
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though. This book, and its sequels, are my personal favorite
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collections.
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The Other 637 Best Things Anybody Ever Said
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Published: 1984
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Publisher: Ballantine (Random House)
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Editor/Author: Robert Byrne
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Scope: Chosen by author
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Sequel to the above work. Same concept, new quotations.
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The Third-and Possibly the Best-637 Best Things Anybody Ever Said
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Published: 1986
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Publisher: Ballantine (Random House)
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Editor/Author: Robert Byrne
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Scope: Chosen by author
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Yet another 637.
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The Fourth-and by far the Most Recent-637 Best Things Anybody Ever
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Said
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Published: 1990
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Publisher: Atheneum/Macmillan Publishing Company
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Editor/Author: Robert Byrne
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Scope: Chosen by author
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The cover says that Robert Byrne "Just can't seem to stop", which
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seems true. It's been three years, though - Let's hope there's a
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fifth volume coming. All four of these are of equal value in my
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opinion.
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This list is by no means comprehensive, but I'd like it to be. If
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you have any books of quotations (any subject or theme), please
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send me the following information so that it can be added to this
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list:
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* Full Title
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* Publication date (original printing and most recent, if possible)
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* Publisher (and distributor)
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* Editor or Author
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* Scope (theme: i.e. Humorous, Patriotic, Feminist, etc.)
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* Library of Congress and/or ISBN numbers if available and a brief
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summary. (3-6 lines)
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This FAQ is copyright (C) 1993 by Jonathan Monsarrat and Michael
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Moncur. Permission is granted to freely edit and distribute as long
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as this copyright notice is included.
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This document was written with the LaTeX language and formatted by
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LameTeX, the PostScript hacker's LaTeX.
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Jon Monsarrat jgm@cs.brown.edu | Michael Moncur mgm@world.std.com
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Sleep...oh! how I loathe those | "It's better to be quotable
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little slices of death... | than to be honest."
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-- Longfellow | -- Tom Stoppard
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