PIC No. 69:
• Title: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers
• Author: Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert
• Publisher: Wentworth Press (Feb. 27, 2019)
• Management Bucket #19 of 20: The Printing Bucket (aka Communications Bucket)
Welcome to Issue No. 69 of PAILS IN COMPARISON, the value-added sidekick of John Pearson’s Buckets Blog. This blog features my “PICs”—shorter reviews of helpful books—with comparisons to other books in my 20 management buckets (core competencies) filing system.
Quotes for the Senate, the Bar, and the Pulpit!
Back in 2020, I was searching high and low for an appropriate retirement gift for a friend when I stumbled across this gem by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert (1834-1909).
Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers has several subtitles, depending on which edition you find. The title page of my book reads, “A Cyclopaedia of Quotations from the Literature of All Ages—Designed for Use of the Senate, the Bar, the Pulpit, and the Orator.” Another publisher titled it, “Three Thousand Selected Quotations From Brilliant Writers.”
Whatever you title it (the book is now in the public domain)—it makes a great gift and a fascinating book for your coffee table at home or office.
My friend was a brilliant writer—and his burning words ignited numerous blazes in meeting rooms and boardrooms. Since he was retiring, I wondered if any brilliant writers had said anything brilliant about retirement?
The book was originally published in 1895 (I have a “replica” edition), and is organized alphabetically with A-to-Z quotes over 688 pages! Certainly, there would be a treasure trove on retirement, right? But, alas, I found nothing in the “R” section on Retirement. However, appropriately sandwiched between Procrastination/Profanity and Sabbath, the “R” section topics were both abundant and convicting:
• Reason, Redemption, Regeneration
• Religion, Repentance, Reputation
• Resignation, Rest, Resurrection
• Revenge, Revival, Riches
Filed under “Rest,” I found this by Rev. George Whitfield (1714-1770):
“Lord Jesus, I am weary in Thy work,
but not of it.
If I have not yet finished my course,
let me go and speak for Thee once more in the field,
seal Thy truth, and come home to die.”
I also found this on “Mistakes” (my favorite subject since 2021!), by Rev. F.W. Robertson (1816-1853):
“Life, like war, is a series of mistakes;
and he is not the best Christian nor the best general who makes the fewest false steps. Poor mediocrity may secure that; but he is the best who wins the most splendid victories by the retrieval of mistakes. Forget mistakes; organize victory out of mistakes.”
You’ll enjoy this amazing collection of “burning words of brilliant writers.” Check out several other quotable-quote books (below) that I’ve leveraged to populate my pontifications!
PAILS IN COMPARISON: Reading this book reminded me of several other must-read books in the Printing Bucket (aka Communications Bucket), plus other buckets/core competencies.
[ ] The Manager's Book of Quotations, by Lewis D. Eigen and Jonathan P. Siegel. (Order from Amazon.)
“The factory of the future will have only two employees, a man and a dog. The man will be there to feed the dog. The dog will be there to keep the man from touching the equipment.” (Warren G. Bennis)
[ ] Leadership: A Treasury of Great Quotations for Those Who Aspire to Lead, compiled by William Safire and Leonard Safir. (Order from Amazon.)
“If you don’t know what to do with many of the papers piled on your desk, stick a dozen colleagues’ initials on ‘em, and pass them along. When in doubt, route.” (Malcom Forbes)
[ ] The Best of Success: A Treasury of Inspiration, by Mac Anderson and Bob Kelly. (Read my review.)
“People have a way of becoming what you encourage them to be—not what you nag them to be,” says Scudder N. Parker. Ella Wheeler Wilcox says it memorably with this: “A pat on the back is only a few vertebrae removed from a kick in the pants, but is miles ahead in results.”
[ ] Books Are Tremendous: What They Represent to Some of Those Who Have Written, Read and Loved Them (Life-Changing Classics), by Charlie “Tremendous” Jones (Read my review.)
“Never lend books, for no one ever returns them; the only books I have in my library are books that other folk have lent me.” (Anatole France)
To order from Amazon, click on the title for Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers, by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert. For more reviews, visit John Pearson’s Buckets Blog and subscribe to Your Weekly Staff Meeting.
© 2024. John Pearson Associates. All rights reserved.
Pails in Comparison is posted every once in a while. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. As an Amazon Associate, we earn Amazon gift cards from qualifying purchases. As a Libro.fm Affiliate, we earn credits. By subscribing to Your Weekly Staff Meeting, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Typepad.com’s privacy policy here.