The Quotations Archive is a comprehensive, searchable database of general purpose quotations. Visitors to the web site can browse through quotations by subject, alphabetically by author, or they can use the search engine to generate a listing of quotations containing selected keywords or by a certain author. Note: I've had to come up with a rule of thumb for alphabtetizing last names that start with "von," "de," and "da." Although technically, they should be alphabetized with the formal name directly following these articles (meaning "of" and "the"), most Americans tend to include the articles as part of the last name. We generally say "da Vinci," not "Vinci." On the other hand, we tend to say "Beethoven," and not "von Beethoven." For the sake of consistency, I have alphabetized these names by article rather than by formal name, with the exception of Beethoven and Goethe. If someone can help me think of a better way to handle this, I'd be happy to consider alternatives. Also contained in this archive is a special-interest section of quotations about love and marriage. These quotes are often useful for people who need to make a toast at a wedding. Others have used them on wedding programs and other publications. HISTORY: I started this collection of quotations in mid-1993 when I started a job administering a unix machine in a University computer lab. I was looking for a way to motivate people to read the login message (where we often try to communicate problems or new features to users). I decided a new quotation every weekday might make people pay attention to the messages. The archive contains a few quotes that use language some may find suggestive or offensive. There aren't many, and I personally think they're funny, but I don't want anyone to be unpleasantly surprised. When I decided to put the collection online, I originally had all the quotations on one page. That got too long, so I split the quotations into five pages. Even that was getting cumbersome, and it was clear I was going to have to make yet another split. I decided I should try my hand at writing a database script. This catalogs each quotation and its information such as author, subject, source, etc. and then I can have the script search these fields based on user requests to produce a web page containing the requested information. The format is much more usable for the web page visitor, and much easier for me to maintain, since I simply enter each quotation and its information only one time. When writing the script, I modified a script originally written by my friend and business partner, Stan Taylor, for another site we maintain (a large listing of religious-oriented web sites). That database was a catalog of URLs rather than a collection of quotations. SUBMISSION POLICIES: I'm happy to consider new quotations for the database, as well as links to related sites. Just send me e-mail with the details. However, this is an archive for famous quotations. Please do not send personal quotations that you made up. This is a moderated web site, and I do not automatically accept all submissions. I reserve the right not to list certain sites or quotations based on suitability or "fit" with the site. LINKING TO THIS WEB SITE:
Anyone is welcome to create a link to The Quotations Archive
database. The main URL is http://www.aphids.com/quotes/index.shtml. The
following code can be used to include this site as a link:
AWARDS: November 10, 1998: Received the Starting Page Selection Award.
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