John Robert Colombo's Famous Lasting Words: Great Canadian Quotations

W.J. Keith is a retired professor of English at the University of Toronto and author A Sense of Style: Studies in the Art of Fiction in English-Speaking Canada.

Dictionaries of quotations may generally be divided into two kinds: the
literary and the practical. The literary anthologize passages remarkable
for their wit, profundity, or verbal beauty, and are listed by authors.
Practical dictionaries are designed to provide “quotable quotes” for
public speakers; contain definitions, information, and serious
commentary as well as wit and wisdom; and are arranged under subjects.
Despite its title, John Robert Colombo’s Famous Lasting Words belongs
in the second category.

The title is to some extent deceptive. Colombo himself admits in his
preface not merely that “only a few of these quotations are truly
famous” but also that it is “markedly a contemporary
collection”—which means that “Lasting” is a dubious designation.
Colombo even asserts that “here are the last words (it is hoped) on
the Meech and Charlottetown accords.”

This last remark points up the fact that there is a heavy political
slant in the book. Moreover, its Canadian character is nowhere more
evident than in its delight in including depreciatory comments about
things Canadian: in what other country would a book of “famous lasting
words” include an Australian academic’s complaint about the quality
of the national coffee? Moreover, for my tastes it smacks a little too
insistently of political correctness; a high percentage of the
quotations are didactic in character, and where they deviate from
sanctioned attitudes, their deviance is made resoundingly obvious.

The integrity of the collection, then, can be questioned, but no one is
likely to browse through the book without finding all sorts of tidbits
to enjoy and cherish. Colombo casts his net wide (the famous, infamous,
unknown, and anonymous are all represented), and if some of the entries
are a shade too educational, a high percentage are witty, eloquent,
funny, and memorable.

It is, of course, a decidedly personal anthology—the product, as
Colombo says, “of one person’s determined browsing.” I’m
surprised that Hugh Hood has only two entries, but delighted to find
generous reproduction of the epigrams of Louis Dudek and Robin Skelton.
Whether you want instruction or entertainment, you will find plenty of
examples here.