Quotations are able to illustrate in a few words what is difficult to explain in many.

Warner’s remark is a compact defense of quotation as a tool of communication and teaching. It suggests that a well-chosen line can compress experience, argument, or emotion into a memorable form—doing the work of pages of exposition by relying on shared cultural references, vivid phrasing, and rhetorical economy. Implicitly, it also points to why quotations circulate: they are portable, repeatable, and persuasive, often serving as shorthand for complex ideas in speeches, classrooms, and everyday conversation. The statement doubles as a meta-commentary on the value of anthologies and citation itself: quotation is not merely decorative, but an efficient vehicle for meaning.