At its best, flattery is truth well dressed, and it is best dressed with fine see-through fabrics. Honest flattery can caress a lover, cover up a gaffe, and muffle aggression.

Misquotation is quotology’s swamp. Amateur quoters mix and mangle Shakespeare and Scripture. Professors gaffe and printers bungle. It’s a mess we must wade into.

Flattery.... gets its kicks by flirting with insult and ridicule.

Like pollen on a honeybee, flattery clings to the things you tell yourself.

Quotologists encounter happy surprises, bright books by faded authors, treasures hidden under dust.

Say what you want without saying it yourself: quote. Very useful, this, sometimes lovely, and versatile, too: big thoughts in small pieces, neatly wrapped and bundled in bulk, in different flavors for different tastes.

[D]ifferent people have different quotational gravity.