I have read a lot of books of quotations over the years.

There are many I have forgotten and many I have yet to discover.  While putting this blog post together, I saw many books I’d love to buy and digest.  Another day.

First, let me say that for some reason, I just cannot ever force myself to like quote books that are organized by author.

Am I alone in this?

They just seem so much harder to extract the gold out.  If a book is sorted by subject, at least you know a little bit of what to expect.

SO…here are my FIVE choices that I suggest you look into:

1. The Book of Positive Quotations:

This one is my latest discovery.  It’s quite good and has a ton of material I’ve never seen before.  There’s also a “Little Book” version of this one.

2. The Forbes Book of Business Quotations:

This is one of those huge books that I like to bad-mouth because it’s just way too big for any normal human to read.  But it’s got a lot of great content.  One of the big problems with big books is that you can sometimes read PAGES before you find anything good.  All filler; no killer.  Sometimes this book has that problem, but much less than other big quote books.  I repeat: this is a good book.

3. Timeless Wisdom:

I must admit that this is one of the best books of quotations that I have ever read.  And it pains me to say that because this book claims to be “THE BEST” of them all.  Apparently they even held some publicity-getting events around that claim, by amassing a group of people to judge it vs. others.  If you read this book, you will find many high-quality quotes that you’ve never seen before.  I plan to challenge them one day.

4. The New Dictionary of Thoughts: A Cyclopedia of Quotations

I really love this old book.  I sometimes feel like many quote-seekers prefer many of the witty, new, current quotations and cannot handle reading some of the deeper, longer, wise thoughts of old.  This book requires you to stop, think, and digest.  It’s not a bunch of quick one-liners that many people prefer.  Sometimes you have to ask yourself if you just want to be entertained or if you want to grow.

5. Aspire to Something Higher: A Pocket Book of Inspired Thoughts
(out of print for now; I still have copies, but only use them as incentives or for contests)

Hey, you can’t blame me for adding in my own book, can you?  The whole concept here is that I have read through the books of thousands & thousands of quotations and taken out some the best for my book.  No more reading 14,000 quotes just to find 500 good ones. 

Plus, since it’s so small, it’s usable.  You take it with you wherever you go; that way, during spare moments of time, you read a little here-and-there.  And when you’re finished, you read it again, and again.  Instead of reading a quote once in an email and forgetting it, you will eventually commit many to memory with this book.

So that’s it for today. 

I will explore many other books in the future.  I’ll let you know which ones are good.

What are YOUR favorite quote books?