Totally RandomFun With Quotes

So how, exactly does one have fun with quotes?
Glad you asked! If you’re like me, you start by exchanging quotes on a daily basis with your Best Bud. But not just any quotes, writing quotes, to give each other inspiration. And then you pick the two best quotes of the week to share with the rest of the world - because ... why not? :-D

If today’s quotes seem kind of random, that’s because they totally are. I liked all of Jamie’s quotes so I just kind of closed my eyes and picked one. And I disliked all of mine this week, so again I just picked one at random. :-)

So first, we have Jamie’s quote:
Ink and paper are sometimes passionate lovers, oftentimes brother and sister, and occasionally mortal enemies.
~Terri Guillemets

I see a lot of good quotes by Terri Guillemets, not just from Jamie, but I’ve sent her a couple as well. My curiosity was piqued as to this author, so I decided to do a little research.

My first surprise was Terri is a woman. Yeah, I know, it should have been obvious by the way she spells her name, but somehow I’d pictured ‘Terri’ as a man. The second surprise was that she isn’t a writer per se, she’s a “quotation anthologist” who created the website The Quote Garden a site I’ve often used when I need a specific quote for something. It’s a wonderful site, go visit it.

What I find very interesting is the fact that Terri has spent a lifetime collecting these quotes, specializing in ferreting out quotes from vintage books. Can you imagine the work involved in going through these old books and figuring out what might speak to someone as a quote? Truly a labour of love.

But while she credits whoever was quoted, apparently often times she’s being cited as the source of some of these quotes. Such as the above quote. Terri Guillemet did not say/write it originally, someone named Emme Woodhull-Bäche did. I don’t know where I’m going with this, other than to remind people to be careful citing sources when using quotations.

My quote this week is pretty much the lesser of a bunch of evils:
My books are water; those of the great geniuses is wine. Everybody drinks water.
― Mark Twain, Notebook

Who doesn’t love Mark Twain? Along with Neil Gaiman and Stephen King, I think he’s the most oft-quoted author Jamie and I use. Maybe even the most oft-quoted writer we use. And why not? His pearls of wisdom, often laced with humour, have definitely withstood the test of time.

We should all be so lucky.