We all love quotations-we use them to make our points, to plead our cases, and to justify our opinions, as well as to honor, glorify, motivate, incite, besmirch, bewitch, and beguile.

'To be or not to be' is not really the question: the real question is what did Hamlet mean by it? 1001 Quotes To Inspire You Before You Die presents multicultural aphorisms, adages, and axioms from numerous brilliant minds over the past 7,000 years.This book takes familiar quotations from around the world and contextualizes and analyzes them. It covers the whole span of recorded history, from Confucius- whose 'I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.' encapsulates modern distinctions between teaching styles-to Donald Rumsfeld's remark about 'known unknowns' and 'unknown unknowns,' which raises important and interesting questions of cognition and risk.

Much wisdom and inspiration has been gained over the course of human history from the words of shamans, philosophers, historians, scientists, artists, and satirists, among others. 'You will never do anything in this world without courage-it is the greatest quality of the mind next to honor,' Aristotle notes, while Voltaire opines, 'If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent Him,' Confucius maintains, 'Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life,' and St. Paul states simply, 'Faith, hope, and love are constants, but the greatest of these is love.'

1001 Quotes To Inspire You Before You Die gives the underlying meanings and subsequent interpretations of the quotations, offering so much more than the words themselves.