Memorable words
Quotations can mean many things and be used in many different ways. Some express a truth which once said seems so obvious that it becomes a proverb, such as William Cowper's 'Variety's the very spice of life' or Alexander Pope's 'Fools rush in where angels fear to tread'. Others are used in contexts where they start to collect a whole new range of associations, such as George Orwell's 'Big brother is watching you', which originated in an ominous political context, and now is widely understood primarily in terms of reality television.
It was Rudyard Kipling who said 'He swathed himself in quotations—as a beggar would enfold himself in the purple of Emperors', and quotations have long been used to add reflected glory. The American broadcaster Ed Murrow said that Winston Churchill ‘mobilized the English language and sent it into battle’ and indeed his inspiring speeches have been quoted ever since. When it comes to speeches, the words of the first Islamic caliph Abu Bakr over a thousand years ago might usefully be remembered: 'Give brief orders; speeches that are too long are likely to be forgotten'. It is the short lines, such as 'Hug a hoodie', that stay in the memory, even if attributed to the wrong author.
A quotation can travel a long way down the years. In 1853 the American Unitarian preacher Theodore Parker wrote 'I do not pretend to understand the moral universe; the arc is a long one, my eye reaches but little ways; I cannot calculate the curve and complete the figure by the experience of sight; I can divine it by conscience. And from what I see I am sure it bends toward justice'. In 1968 Martin Luther King, speaking in the National Cathedral, Washington, adapted this to 'We shall overcome because the arc of a moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice', and in 2007 the presidential candidate Barack Obama echoed these, saying 'The arc of history is long but it bends towards justice'.
Quotations are remembered because they refer to an extraordinary event, such as Marco Polo's response when asked if he wished to deny any of his stories of his travels: 'I have not told even half of the things that I have seen', or because they can be applied to a topical issue, such as Thoreau's 'In wildness is the preservation of the world'. Or they can simply express a universal aspiration, such as Helen Keller's 'Life is either a daring adventure or nothing'.
All these quotations and thousands more can be found in the new seventh edition of the Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, and OUP are celebrating by launching a nationwide poll to find the most memorable quote. Visit www.waterstones.com/oup to find out more.
Susan Ratcliffe
11/09/2009
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