You may (or may not for that matter) wonder where I am getting all these "pithy" quotes of the day. Come on, you know you have been curious, just admit it.
Well, all these quotes are coming from my Commonplace book.
Merriam-Webster's dictionary defines a commonplace book as a book of memoribilia and I guess that is what it is. It is my book full of quotes that struck me, copies of speeches (like the Gettysburg Address and Ronald Reagan's speech after the Challenger disaster) and occasionally poetry (VERY occasionally).
I had never heard of a commonplace book until several years ago when I read about it in An Open Book by Michael Dirda. Mr. Dirda was, at that time, the editor of The Washington Post Book World. He keeps a Commonplace book and the idea sounded excellent to me. I have since found that it was and is something practiced by many. William Bennett keeps a commonplace book as did Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin and John Adams. Good enough for me.
When I am reading if something strikes me and I want to remember it I flag the quote with those little post it things and then copy it into my commonplace book when I am done reading. As simple as that. I have the book broken down into different sections such as Speeches, Quotes from Books, Religion, Poetry, Quotes from letters, Misc. Info and Misc. Quotes. Those designations seem to cover most things for me.
So, that is where the quotes are coming from. I have A LOT of quotes so don't think I will run out anytime soon.
An additional quote of the day. "You know you're getting old when you stoop to tie your shoelaces and wonder what else you could do while you're down there." George Burns
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