TO QUOTE
OR
NOT TO QUOTE
During our days in college there was a strong belief among the students that if your answer paper is glittering with quotations then you are through. Students would quote Shakespeare, Milton, Abraham Lincoln, Adam Smith, etc. When they were not very sure as to who said what, they thought ignorance was bliss and wrote, �As someone has wisely said....�
But the examination is not the only place for quoting. The public speech, the College jubilee souvenir, house journals of various institutions designed to motivate the employees, the plethora of newspapers are all examples of how quotations are favourites! Why, we even have books of quotations, Quotable Quotes, Quotations for all occasions, etc. As someone has said even the devil can quote the scriptures or better still, like the devil quoting the scripture, which of course refers to the clever game of quoting out of context.
Quoting from others is a favourite method adopted by writers to lend authenticity to their own statements in learned books, research works and other dissertations. Here one does not usually say Hamilton has said, instead the style is to say, �Hamilton holds that....�
Quotations are the daily bread of religions also. On the church door there was this quotation: �If you are tired of sin, step in.� In another place they had written in bold letters, �Jesus never fails�. Someone had scribbled below: �Let him try the CA exam�.
Politicians are also good at rattling quotations. The quotations like: �Government for the people, by the people and of the people�, �Truth is truth even though it is spoken only by the minority of only one person�, �Give me liberty or give me death� do not click today. The quotation which is most suitable but which is shunned by all the politicians may be �Politics is the last resort of the scoundrel� or if you want to be a little more sophisticated, �Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.�
In the world full of people who quote one thing but do the opposite one can only recall the old faithful �to be or not to be� and say �to quote or not to quote.� �Clifford Martis
