Have you ever wanted to be an intellectual, without all that tedious work of getting an advanced college degree? Here’s your shortcut to the world of the well read. Just open this collection of 1,417 quotations from the mouths of the wildly famous to the painfully obscure, and voila!--instant erudition. It doesn’t take much to sound as if you know what you’re talking about. Just toss off some time-tested wisdom from Henry James or Plotinus . . . or, if you’re feeling daring, a line or two of poetry from Byron. In no time at all you’ll be sipping a glass of Madeira, sampling imported Gouda, and bragging about your collection of first edition Vonneguts. Just like an intellectual.

This book presents more than 1,500 quotes from C. S. Lewis's writings, providing ready access to his thoughts on a variety of topics. An exhaustive index references key words and concepts, allowing readers to easily find quotes on any subject of interest.

Over the past few decades, the bestselling author of Hitch-22 has crisscrossed the globe debating religious scholars, Catholic clergy, rabbis, and devout Christians on the existence of God -- appearances that have attracted thousands of people on both sides of the issue. He has been invited to talk shows and events to discuss everything from the death of Jerry Falwell to the sainthood of Mother Teresa, from U.S. policy in the Middle East to the dangers of religious fundamentalism and beyond. And he is always armed with pithy discourse that is as intelligent as it is quotable. The Quotable Hitchens gathers for the first time the eminent journalist, public intellectual, and all-around provocateur Christopher Hitchen's most scathing, inflammatory, hilarious, and clear-cut commentary from the course of his storied career. Drawn from his many TV appearances, debates, lectures, interviews, articles, and books, the quotations are arranged alphabetically by subject -- from atheism and alcoholism to George Orwell and Bertrand Russell, from Islamofascism and Iraq to smoking and sex.

The Quotable Paul Johnson contains 2,000 pithy and hard-hitting Johnson excerpts, edited and arranged alphabetically by topic, and with a cross-reference index. Since the publication of Modern Times in 1983, Paul Johnson has been recognized as one of the world's most distinguished popular historians. In addition to having written twenty-eight books, including Intellectuals and History of the Jews, he frequently contributes essays and book reviews to both the British and the American press.

From the Dust Jacket: The Quotable Edison offers a wealth of insightful, enlightening, and sometimes humorous comments and witticisms from Thomas Edison (1847-1931), a man famous for his dictum that "Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration." He seemed always ready with a clever word or phrase. On religion, "Satan is the scarecrow of the religious cornfield"; On the English, "The English are not an inventive people; they don't eat enough pie"; On the secret of his success, "I start where the last man left off"; On work, "I've been working two shifts most of my life. Lots of other men work two shifts too, but they devote the other one to poker"; On the law, "A lawsuit is the suicide of time"; On philosophy, "I believe that life, like matter, is indestructible"; On vacations, "Florida is about as near to heaven as any man can get"; On vice, "Whatever a man likes he will have a tendency to overdo". Variously called a "magician," the "Wizard of Menlo Park," and "the Napoleon of Science," he was a prolific inventor and the holder of hundreds of patents. But he was also a practical joker, a self-made man with a certain disdain for polite society, an ambitious explorer, and a public intellectual. By the age of 38, Edison was a world-famous celebrity, sought out by reporters eager for a scoop of just a comment. Even today, eighty years after his death, he remains one of the great scientific heroes of American and world history. The Quotable Edison brings the inventor to life like on other biography, allowing the man to speak in his own voice, including his reported final words: "It's very beautiful over there."

Covering topics like marriage, the Bible, forgiveness, and more, Oswald Chambers spoke on almost every aspect of daily living. The Quotable Oswald Chambers, compiled and edited by Chambers authority David McCasland, provides quotations from all of Oswald Chambers’ teachings and organizes them by topic. Featuring an annotated bibliography and both Scripture and subject indexes, this book is helpful for finding the perfect quote.