Introduction

The author in younger days.

You will find it a very good practice always to verify your references, sir!
— Dr Routh (1755 – 1854), from Burgon, Quarterly Review, July 1878, vol cxlvi, 30.

These quotations have been collected from many sources over many years, and they represent the working collections of a working author. I used the collection as a source of epigraphs for books I was writing, but as you can see (left), I am fading and I approach my use-by date, so I would hate to see all that effort fall into the bit bucket.

At the end of this exercise (it is now complete), I will publish the collection, both as an e-book and an Amazon POD paperback. Pricing will be cost-recovery plus 20%, but this free version will remain.

This collection (in its various forms) is dedicated to John Julius Norwich, who wrote in The Normans in the South:

"... the notoriously unreliable monk Radulph Glaber (the wildness of whose imagination was rivalled only by that of his private life, which gives him a fair claim to have been expelled from more monasteries than any other littérateur of the eleventh century)…" 

I decided to share that snippet with literate friends when I came across it while preparing to tour southern Italy, but then I recalled that I had already done so, and to avoid retyping, I went looking for it, and found my old quotes and epigraphs file, which I decided might be of some use to other scholars. My biases are obvious, both in the subjects and in the authors chosen, for this was and is a growing file that reflects what I have read or written about in the past, or anticipate writing about in the near future. At present, there are some 130,000 words in about 1900 separate selections in this collection.

My intention was originally (back in the '70s) that I would use somr of these, either as quotations in other books, or as epigraphs, those neat and apposite quotes, like the one at the head of this entry. I was inspired by Alan Mackay's The Harvest of a Quiet Eye, published by the Institute of Physics in 1977.

At first, I just grabbed quotes and wrote them in a commonplace book, but then I made my first electronic file, and set out on the road that brought me to here, where I can bequeath my work to those who come after.

Where possible, I have identified the sources in detail, but some were gleaned from other (regrettably secondary) sources, or were jotted down quickly in my note-books, or gathered from photocopies of odd pages that lacked the necessary detail. I have left these pieces of dubious scholarship in, rather than risk depriving people of some worthy amusements or starting points. Just find your own source...and then check it!

The selections are brief, and mainly taken from scientific sources, most of which are already in the public domain. A few are taken from works where a whole-work copyright probably exists. The task of seeking out and obtaining copyright clearance for such brief passages would have been too arduous and expensive, given that my intention in quoting from those works was to draw attention to them so that the reader would track them down. I will remove any items to which any verified copyright owner objects, after we have discussed whether or not my usage represents fair dealing. I believe that it does, in every case.

Topics to date, in the order added:

Biology, Animals 1, Animals 2, Genetics, Death and the dead, Behaviour in animals and humans, Disease 1, Disease 2, smallpox and scurvy, Falling, Technology, Mathematics, Geometry, Measurement, Computing, Statistics and probability, Cinema, Music, Science, History, Geological History, Books, Poisons, Coprophilia, Particle physics, cholera, Quantum physics, Scientists, Scientific discovery, Practical science, Science education, Scientific fraud, Scientific communication, Scientific laws, Scientific methods, Disease, Hygiene, Drugs, Microscopes, Microbes, Communication, Colour, Senses, Language, Knowledge, Wisdom, Education, Art and the Arts, Critics, Climate and weather, Fossils, Measuring the Earth, Rocks, Volcanoes and earthquakes, Politics, Economics, Poverty, Women in science, Philosophy, Exploration, War, Minerals, Pressure and vacuums, Tides and tidal waves, Bushfires, Astronomy, Space travel, Ice and cold, Meteors and comets, Cold water cures, Heat and fire, Engines and motors, Change, Entropy, Lightning, Electricity, The electron as a particle, X-rays, Radioactivity, Radium, Nuclear apparatus, Nuclear fusion and fission, X-ray crystallography, Optics and light, Speed and nature of light, Magnetism, Physics, Strength of materials, Materials, Chemistry, Elements, Chemical compounds and combinations, Atoms, Crystals, Glass, Iron, Catalysis, Telegraphy,  Venomous bites, The advance of medicine, Poisons as medicine, Rabies, Peculiar medicine, Quacks, John Wesley on medicine, Invertebrates, Insects, Arachnids, Birds, Fish, Mammals, Food and drink, Plants, Soil, Water, Cells, Ecology, Conservation of species, Population, Introduced species, Pollution, Energy: light, Evolution, Evolution and altruism, Biogeography and evolution, Human evolution, Vision and art, Liberty, Coaches, Flight, Time, Quotations.

To get to the latest entries, go to this link, or just use the last few items in the list above.

And finally, a warning: use these freely, but don't try to pass this whole work off as your own. I have placed it where it should survive anything less than World War III, as a free resource. There are hidden triggers and watermarks in these pages, and I describe my methods in A question of copyright, a handy case study on how to catch thieves (that said, my most cunning traps are not revealed: I am happy to provide instructions to friends, and I make friends easily). When I cark it, the traps are still there, and heirs and assigns may well descend upon you. Go elsewhere to steal stuff to peddle. "I found it on the internet" simply does not wash.

Petrus Macinnius