commonplace quotes

Depend upon it, there is nothing so unnatural as the commonplace.

- SirArthur Conan Doyle
  The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes,'A Case of Identity'.

   A commonplace young man, A matter-of-fact young man, A steady and stolid-y, jolly Bank-Holiday Every-day young man!

- Sir W(illiam) S(chwenck) Gilbert
Bunthorne and Grosvenor's duet, Patience, act 2.

Nothing is so common-place as to wish to be remarkable.

- Oliver Wendell Holmes
^8  The Autocrat of the Breakfast  Table, ch.12.

   Little minds are interested in the extraordinary; great minds in the commonplace.

- Elbert Green Hubbard
Thousand and One Epigrams.

But then they danced down the street like dingle- dodies, and Ishambled afteras I've beendoing all my life after people who interest me, because the only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn, like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes 'Awww!'

-Jack (John) Kerouac
  On The Road, pt.1, ch.1.

Nature is commonplace. Imitation is more interesting.

- Gertrude Stein
Quoted in Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin MyAutobiography (1964).

With little here to do or see Of things that in the great world be, Sweet Daisy! oft I talk to thee For thou art worthy, Thou unassuming commonplace Of Nature, with that homely face, And yet with something of a grace Which love makes for thee!

-William Wordsworth
  'To the Daisy', stanza1 (published1807).