From WhyNotWiki

Contents 1 What they are 2 Instances 2.1 Devil's dictionary (and similar fun/cynical definitions) 3 Conventions for using quotes on this wiki 4 See also 5 To do 5.1 Problem: It's hard to verify quotes; Don't have access to original primary source most of the time 6 Article metadata

[edit] What they are

quotable kind

context: Entertainment, Reading pleasure, oftentimes Humor

[edit] Instances

(Quotes themselves)

(This is only for miscellaneous quotes. If they can be put in a more specific topic, then by all means do!)

“	Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist.	”
—Emerson

“	The phrase 'working mother' is redundant.	”
—Jane Sellman

[Mothers (category)][Redundancy (category)]

“	"Better to be a smart ass than a dumb ass!"	”
—Jeff Thoman, http://www.myspace.com/chaosinmyveins

“	Interests: Shooting stuff, blowing stuff up, and burning stuff... stuff doesn't stand a chance around me!	”
—Jeff Thoman, http://www.myspace.com/chaosinmyveins

“	Superficiality is only skin deep; you may choose a book off the shelf because of its cover but you'll keep reading it because of the story it tells. I hope to some day have an interesting story and maybe a good cover to put on it. Right now I have to settle for a mediocre plot, cryptic subtext, and bland dialogue; I'm thinking about finding a new writer...	”
—David Kwan, http://www.myspace.com/dalwan

“	"There can be no knowledge without emotion. We may be aware of a truth, yet until we have felt its force, it is not ours. To the cognition of the brain must be added the experience of the soul."	”
—Arnold Bennett

“	You are My inspiration, you, the person whos eyes are darting across the pixels, swallowing the words and phrases, I want to make you laugh, I want to fill your brain with a feeling of reassurance and curiosity. How? e-mail me and our conversations may grow like a bamboo forrest, lush with tangents, tall with stories, and salivating with the teeth of a panda chewing your face.	”
—Jesse Ferguson, http://www.myspace.com/nosugref

“	It Won't Be Soon Before Long	”
—Title of album by Maroon 5

“	Obscurity is a far greater threat to authors and creative artists than piracy	”
—Tim O’Reilly, as quoted on [1]

“	"Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens."	”
—J.R.R. Tolkien, Adam, http://www.myspace.com/canadianfalcon

“	The great thing about standards is that there are so many to pick from.	”
—?, As found on http://www.schemamania.org/schemamania/

“	The great thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from.	”
—?

“	Well, it's also a passion, because hobbies should be passions, after all.	”
—J K Lowden, As found on http://www.schemamania.org/schemamania/

“	Patriotism is supporting your country all the time, and your government when it deserves it.	”
—Mark Twain

[Patriotism (category)]

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[edit] Devil's dictionary (and similar fun/cynical definitions)

“	“gift certificate” - a piece of paper that says that you couldn’t think of what to give so you assuaged your guilt by giving money to a corporation	”
—Danah Boyd, http://many.corante.com/archives/2007/02/13/facebooks_little_digital_gift.php

[Gift certificates (category)]

[edit] Conventions for using quotes on this wiki

In the long term, quotes will be stored in a special database table. That's not ready yet.

[Migration (category)] In the meantime, one can insert quotes directly into the wiki text on articles/pages where they seem appropriate. (For example, in the section above)

Be sure that you add that page to Category:Has quotes so that we can easily find and import all quotes when we are ready to transfer them over to a specialized quotes database...

Typically, you should use Template:Quote, because it makes it look good. It also automatically adds the page to Category:Quotes for you, so you don't have to remember to do it manually...

{{quote|My quote|Who said it}}

Part of: WhyNotWiki:Conventions
See also: WhyNotWiki:Citing sources

[edit] See also

[edit] To do

[edit] Problem: It's hard to verify quotes; Don't have access to original primary source most of the time

Often I will hear some quote used verbally -- on the radio, in conversation, in a sermon -- and want to look it up. Where do I go to look it up? To Google, of course. The problem with that, however, is that there are many 3rd-, 4th-, 5th-hand (!) versions of a quote, so the accuracy and integrity of a quote you find online can be somewhat questionable.

Aspects/sources of this problem:

• People often don't include full primary source information. They'll only include the author, for example.
• Most people are too lazy to go to the primary source themselves, because often (probably more often than not), the primary source is some printed book, which you'd have to go to a library to look at -- that is, it's not possible for us lazy people to just quickly verify on the Web.
• On the web, there is no "official" 100% accurate repository of quotes. Many sites attempt to be comprehensive and accurate, but since they are still 2nd-hand at best and they are compiled through the work of many error-prone humans.
• Just because one version of the quote is more prevalent/widespread on the Web, does not mean it's the most accurate one. They could have all just been quoting each other or quoting a single 2nd-hand source who got the wording slightly wrong. (Are there any examples of this?)

Example:

These two authors apparently were referring to the same quote, but notice how many times they differ/disagree! Obviously, one or the other of them must not accurate.

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/malcolmbowden/indexx.htm

Adrian Rogers encapsulated this when he said -

"It is better to be divided by Truth than united in error; It is better to tell Truth that hurts and then heals than to tell a lie ; It is better to be hated for telling the Truth than to be loved for telling a lie; It is better to stand alone with Truth than to be wrong with the multitude..."

http://www.adrian.warnock.info/2005/01/its-better-to-stand-alone-with-truth.htm

"It is better to be divided by truth than to be united in error. It is better to speak the truth that hurts and then heals, than falsehood that comforts and then kills . [...] It is better to be hated for telling the truth, than to be loved for telling a lie. [...] It's better to stand alone with the truth, than to be wrong with a multitude. It is better to ultimately succeed with the truth than to temporarily succeed with a lie. There is only one Gospel and Paul said, 'If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed."

- Adrian Rogers (cited in The Berean Call, December 1996)

In this particular case, I would definitely conclude that the 2nd version is the more accurate of the two -- even without comparing with any other sources. Why?

• Only the 2nd version included its source, which appears to be the primary/original source. I'm left to conclude that the 1st version either tried to recite it from memory (and didn't do a good job of it), intentionally paraphrased it, or gathered it from another 2nd-hand source (rather than directly from the original, as the 1st version might have).
• The 2nd version contains entire sentences that the 1st does not.
• The 1st version has some strange, non-standard conventions -- like the capital Truth and the semicolon (;) used in place of the period -- that make me think it was just his idiosyncratic reproduction of the source than a faithful-to-the-original verbatim copy.

Solution:

How to determine which version of a quote is accurate?

• Go to the primary source, if you can find it.
• Otherwise go with the version of the quote that you find the most frequently widespread on the Web. If they all agree with each other, there's a pretty good chance it's accurate (although that is not guaranteed to be the case).

Good practices for quoters:

• Always include full source information
• Additionally, record your source: where did you find the quote (and your information regarding the primary source)?
• If (as you do your checking to see if you have an accurate version) you happen to visit multiple sites containing (different or identical) versions of the quote, it wouldn't hurt anything to jot down those versions/sources/URLs as well.

[edit] Article metadata

Quotes  edit   (Category  edit)

Things I'm collecting  edit   (Category  edit)