I do love books of quotations. The two Oxfords on the left are separated by forty-nine years and an even wider, but fascinating, gap in terms of editorial direction - the 1992 edition has around eighty Kipling quotes, the 1943 over two hundred. The Oxford Dictionary of Thematic Quotations (2000) is handy and quirky, and being arranged by theme rather than by author, is the most reader-friendly. My favourite, though, is the tome on the right by Burton Egbert Stevenson, published in 1934 as Stevenson's Book of Quotations (though far more editions appeared, for some reason, with the more prosaic title Home Book of Quotations). Stevenson published around fifty books, including a dozen mystery novels about which, if you believe the critics, the less said the better, but there's nothing lightweight about his Quotations - apart from anything else, it runs to 2,500 pages.
I notice the 1992 Oxford Dictionary has my favourite Franklin Delano Roosevelt quote. In January 1942 Roosevelt turned sixty, and Churchill sent his congratulations. The president cabled his thanks with the words, 'It is fun to be in the same decade with you'.
Which brings me to the point. When I acquired an Android phone, I went onto the Anroid Market and downloaded several applications which I knew I would use regularly: a note book, a To Do gizmo, a thesaurus, a dictionary - and several collections of quotations. Then I discovered an excellent app called Extensive Notes Pro, which enabled me to delete all of the foregoing except the quotations. In an exchange of emails with Paul the developer, I said as much, and he replied, 'LoL... I'm working on adding more conversion stuff.. right now energy conversions. Still thinking of what other stuff I can add in there that would be useful?' I suggested quotations, and he said, 'I'll see what I can do.' So who knows; but whether he gets around to adding quotations or not, if you happen to own an Android phone I recommend that you check out Extensive Notes Pro. I'm not on commission, but there's a thought. If you happen to read this Paul the developer...
