Bartlett's Familiar Quotations : A Collection of Passages, Phrases, and Proverbs Traced to Their Sources in Ancient and Modern Literature [Hardcover]

John Bartlett (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0316082775 | ISBN-13: 978-0316082778 | Publication Date: November 4, 1992 | Edition: 16th

This 16th edition of the book, first published in 1855, has been expanded to include more than 20,000 quotations and more than 340 new authors both historical and contemporary - from Russell Baker, The Doors, Elvis, Nadine Gordimer, Stephen Hawking, Primo Levi, Norman Mailer, Salman Rushdie, the Talmud, Alice Walker and Elie Wiesel. This edition has been revised and edited by Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer Justin Kaplan.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 1472 pages
• Publisher: Little, Brown; 16th edition (November 4, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316082775
• ISBN-13: 978-0316082778
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 7.9 x 2.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #125,403 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #14 in Books > Education & Reference > Encyclopedias > Medical
  • #92 in Books > Education & Reference > Encyclopedias > Antiques & Collectibles

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

194 of 198 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Venerable Classic that May or Not be what YOU need., October 16, 2000

By 

Robert Kall "Rob Kall of Opednews.com" (Newtown, PA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bartlett's Familiar Quotations : A Collection of Passages, Phrases, and Proverbs Traced to Their Sources in Ancient and Modern Literature (Hardcover)

Bartlett's is, by far, the most well known of all quotations books. But it may or not be the best one for your needs. If you want a book which will help you find our who wrote quotations that you encounter, then it's an excellent choice. If you want a book that takes you on a stroll through the history of ideas, starting with the earliest quotations, and moving through to the most recent, then this is a good book for you, perhaps the best. This can be a great way to discover which authors' ideas you like, so you can identify whole books by those authors. It's a great way to introduce nuggets of brilliance to your kids too.

But if you are preparing a speech, writing a book or article which you want to find good quotes on specific subjects, this is not a good choice. There are some wonderfully better books than this one with more quotations and which are far better organized. They are all organized by subject category. It makes all the difference in the world, compared to going to the index in the back of the book, then searching for each quote referred to in the subject index, as Bartlett's forces you to do.

If you are, like me, a quotation book collector (I have over 400, dating back to 1590 and a computer database of over 50,000 quotatiosn) then you'll want an edition of Bartlett's (I have at least half a dozen different editions, and the contents do change from edition to edition.)

Other good subject categorized quotation books include . H.L. Mencken's A New Dictionary of Quotations Awesome collection Dictionary of Thoughts by Tryon Edwards, over 100 years since first published, but much friendlier Burton Stevenson's Home Book of quotations, with over 40,000 quotes also titled as MacMillan Dictionary of Quotations, Big, solidly done. Wolfgang Mieder's Encyclopedia of World Proverbs (not quotes, but a great collection by one of the world's experts) International Thesaurus of Quotations-- very comprehensive, large list,and, a new addition-- Quotationary. I've also put together an amazon list of quotation books.

I have to say though, that over the 10+ years I have been working on my own quotation book, with its 600+ subject categories, I have always used Bartletts as one of the measures of quality.

Have fun.

51 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How Do They Know That?, January 12, 2002

By 

James Gallen (St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.A.) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bartlett's Familiar Quotations : A Collection of Passages, Phrases, and Proverbs Traced to Their Sources in Ancient and Modern Literature (Hardcover)

I always wondered how speakers knew all those quotations. Now I know. They check "Barltett's Quotations."

This book consists of an extensive collection of thousands of familiar quotations from hundreds of sources spanning the history of the world. Biblical books, literary works, historical figures, authors, politicians, religious figures and even the anonymous all contribute to this vast collection.

The collection is assembled by source, listed, more or less, chronologically. The book contains two indices. In the front, the reader finds the Index by Authors. After the quotations, we find a general index of topics. For each listing in the general index, we find the lead word as a heading with the citation for each lead word with the words which follow it in the quotation.

I have found this book to be a valuable resource on many occasions. Just reading through it educates the reader to the source of many sayings with which we are familiar. When I have been searching my brain for the particular phrase, I have often found it in "Bartlett's". When looking for a witty phrase with which to liven a speech, "Bartlett's" often comes in handy.

I strongly recommend this book to anyone who needs a source for quotations for speeches, writings, or just to satisfy your own curiosity.

27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb Dictionairy of Quotations, equally superb index, March 3, 2000

By 

C. Hulshof "Sic transit gloria mundi" (Enschede, OV Netherlands) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Bartlett's Familiar Quotations : A Collection of Passages, Phrases, and Proverbs Traced to Their Sources in Ancient and Modern Literature (Hardcover)

This is a 'thinking man's' book, it is very well laid out, includes many (sometimes very obscure) quotations, is extremely well on sources (something that is so blatantly absent from many dictionairies of quotations), and includes a large amount of cross-references (although you can find a lot more yourself by careful browsing). If you buy only one book of quotations, this should be your choice. A good second is Oxford's, but Bartlett has got the best index of any reference work ever (it is more than 700 pages itself!) The preface of the book contains a sour message on the state of illiteracy in the USA, it is best left alone, but the rest of the book cannot be recommended enough. In sum, this is the best reference book of quotations available.