The New Yorker's "Notable Quotables"

Everybody does it!

Quips, comebacks, clever sayings.

Sometimes we're quoting and we know it.

Sometimes we even think we know who we're quoting.

But very seldom are we using the exact words of the quote--even when we believe that we are.

There's a great piece
on this topic, by
Louis Menand
in the current issue of
The New Yorker magazine:
"Notable Quotables."

Famously, no one in the film Casablanca
ever said, "Play it again, Sam."

And Churchill's famous phrase,
"blood, sweat, and tears"
has entered our common speech
but "toil" is
omitted.

Probably because "blood, sweat, toil,
and tears" does not suit
our sense of
the rhythm
of our language
so well as
the threesome does.

Intrigued?

Go enjoy the entire article
on-line at
http://www.newyorker.com/critics/books/