Customer Reviews

Simpson's Contemporary Quotations Revised Edition: Most Notable Quotes From 1950 to the Present, The

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Most books of quotations tend to emphasize the classics, so it is nice to see one concentrate on the wise, witty, wonderful, and just plain odd things being said today. It contains "approximately 11,300 quotations with special emphasis on the years since 1988", by well-known and lesser known people. It is the sort of book you can open for a moment, and close an hour later. I found it fascinating.

The book is divided into three overarching categories: the World, Humankind, and Communication and the Arts. These are further broken down into more specific categories, such as Law, Education, Family Life, Humor, Art, Films, and Literature--and many others. Most of these are then further broken down. For instance, Literature consists of Writers and Editors, Poets, and Critics.

Some of the authors represented are Bill Clinton, Prince Charles, Oprah Winfrey, Robert Frost, John D. Rockefeller, Grace Hopper, Warren Bennis, and many, many others. As you can see, they are an eclectic bunch.

The quotes themselves may be interesting in their own right, or appropriate to a particular occasion, or the original words of something that has moved into our modern ways of thought. Like any book of quotations, the reader always wonders why some things were included, and others left out, but that is part of the fun of reading quote books.

There are three extensive indexes: Source (i.e. Author), Subjects, and Keyword. Attributions are always given for each quote.

This book has many, if not all of the most famous quotes of today. The book is very well organized and meticulous in its details. Fr. Simpson has obvously spent many long hours organizing and researching. The final product is really fantastic!! You must buy this book!

I have allowed this book at least twenty chances, but each time I find only dribble and white bread. Simpson's is useless. Rather than allow it to continue to take up my precious shelf space, I'm donating mine to the Friends of the Library sale

Simpson's attributes authorship of a Theodore Roosevelt quote to John F. Kennedy.

Theodore Roosevely wrote "History as Literature" in 1913. In this work he wrote the famous quote:
'It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.'

Simpson's wrongly attributes the quote to Kennedy.