Sarah in Fleming Island, Florida, is curious about the saying sometimes you eat the bear, and sometimes the bear eats you, which suggests “it’s a dog-eat-dog world,” or “eat or be eaten,” or more gently, “you win...
Liam in San Francisco, California, emailed to share a passage from Donna Tartt’s novel, The Secret History (Bookshop|Amazon). It’s a sensuous description of the sights, sounds, and smells of autumn in Vermont. This is part of a complete...
In Super-Infinite: The Transformations of John Donne (Bookshop|Amazon), Oxford University scholar Katherine Rundell offers a memorable quotation about the very astonishment of being alive. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “The...
Among the proverbs in Leo Rosten’s Treasury of Jewish Quotations (Amazon): If you drop gold and books, pick up the books first, then the gold. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Who Is Just Carrying Around Gold, Anyway...
One of our favorite new reference works is The New Yale Book of Quotations (Bookshop|Amazon) edited by Fred Shapiro, associate director for collections and access at the Yale Law Library. This volume is a vastly expanded version of the previous...
Which is correct to say at the beginning and end of a quotation: quote unquote or quote end quote? Both are used, but the former is far more common. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Quote Unquote vs. Quote End Quote”...