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Questions tagged [quotes]

For questions related to a fairly well-known sentence or phrase that is widely understood to have originated in a publicly available text or speech, in many cases attributed to a famous person (or multiple famous people). See also the "quotations" tag.

Use this tag for questions about quotes in English. Remember to attribute the quote in order to make it easy for others to find it online. Try to offer context when possible. See also .

For questions about quotation marks, see or .

416 questions
86
votes
7 answers

What does the phrase "Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish" mean?

It was Steve Jobs's ending comment in the Stanford Commencement in 2005, and Jobs mentioned: Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. What does this phrase mean? I understand this may also seem philosophical, but when studying English, often we not only study…
nonopolarity
  • 3,023
44
votes
5 answers

How correct is "quote, unquote" and where does its usage come from?

In the following quote, it seems (to me at least) quite difficult to figure out what exactly is being quote: “The best cure—quote, unquote—for aging is slowing disease,” Daniel Kraft, the chair of [...] My questions are the following: Isn't it…
ChrisR
  • 583
20
votes
2 answers

Meaning of "Mr Right's first name is Always"

What does this quote mean? When I eventually met Mr. Right I had no idea that his first name was Always. — Rita Rudner
kohlivishal
  • 209
  • 2
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17
votes
1 answer

Where does this translation of Saint-Exupery's quote on design come from?

A very well-known aphorism from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry is Il semble que la perfection soit atteinte non quand il n'y a plus rien à ajouter, mais quand il n'y a plus rien à retrancher. (Terre des Hommes, 1939). The canonical English…
RoundTower
  • 946
17
votes
10 answers

Meaning of the Oscar Wilde quote about the "tragedy of old age"

What does this quote by Oscar Wilde actually mean? "The tragedy of old age is not that one is old, but that one is young"
Kaushik
  • 273
15
votes
6 answers

What does children mean in “Familiarity breeds contempt - and children.“?

Consider this quote from Mark Twain: “Familiarity breeds contempt - and children.” Does it mean having children is a bad thing? Could you explain what the children imply here?
Chen David
  • 365
8
votes
1 answer

Using Multiple Sics in One Quote

If a quote is rife with errors, can a single [sic] be used at the end of the quote rather than after each error? She wrote, "Your [sic] making me weigh [sic] to [sic] sleepy." She wrote, "Your making me weigh to sleepy [sic]."
Blockhead
  • 81
6
votes
5 answers

What do "a sort of moral attention" and "riotous excursions" mean in this quote from the Great Gatsby?

“When I came back from the East last autumn I felt that I wanted the world to be in uniform and at a sort of moral attention forever; I wanted no more riotous excursions with privileged glimpses into the human heart” Does "at a sort of moral…
withparadox2
  • 221
5
votes
2 answers

Attribution: Quoting a Fictional Character

Famously: "Try not. Do or do not. There is no try." -- Yoda Thing is, this is from a movie. A writer wrote it and a voice actor spoke it. Is there a correct form of attribution for a case like this? If so, what?
Bob Kaufman
  • 693
4
votes
4 answers

Is there a famous quote saying something to the effect of ‘everything we've learned about x we learned through blood’?

I'm trying to recall a quote I read some time ago. The gist was that ‘Everything we've learned in/about x we learned through blood’, with the implication being that every current rule/practice in x came to be because somebody came to harm in the…
08915bfe02
  • 443
4
votes
2 answers

What term did Hugo Chavez use after losing a constitutional amendment?

Huge Chavez used an obscure term, when referring to his opponents beating him in a national referendum, that means "you think you want it but it turns out to be a bad thing" after losing an bid for an amendment for a constitutional amendment, and I…
Ryan James
  • 143
4
votes
3 answers

Usage of [sic] in quote

If a quote contains a capitalization error, should [sic] be used? For example, in the following: “But, alas! this kind heart had but a short time to remain such", the t in this would normally be capitalized. When it is quoted in an essay, should it…
user52333
  • 41
4
votes
1 answer

He who accuses the whole world convicts only himself

Or something like that. Does anybody know the exact text and source of this quotation?
Michael Lorton
  • 28,092
3
votes
1 answer

Quoting multiple sentences in a short quote. No interruption

I've encountered this grammar several times while proofreading academic papers. There is a tendency among authors to use inline quotes with multiple sentences quoted. For example, John cited Powell's belief that the search for 'life on other…
freeform23
  • 51
3
votes
1 answer

Meaning of a quote in the movie Casino (1995)

I am watching Martin Scorcese's movie Casino (1995) and there is lot of idioms. I am not native english speaker so I am searching for the meaning of quotes I didnt know already. I found meaning of most of them but I cant find meaning of the last two…
poho
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