Rating: 
Summary: Lead, follow, plagiarize
Review: I received this book as a gift and I'm still trying to process the implications of that. On some level, you have to be impressed by anyone with the arrogance to include personal quotations (on page one, no less) amongst those he considers to be the most brilliant in written history. Respect however, is an entirely separate consideration. The book would have been more aptly titled, "My Favorite Thoughts of All Time in Two Lines or Less" but then of course, the prospective purchaser is prompted to make a value judgment as to whether or not they care about Mr. Shanahan's choices. Same thing applies here, it's just less of a conscious consideration.In any event, the book is an effective conversation piece although I have serious reservations about using any quotations without prior knowledge of context. It is quite conceivable you will be perceived as a dilettante, and if you are truly honest with yourself, potentially a fraud. If you cannot be well-read, I suppose faking it is the next best thing. On the plus side, the CD is an effective cure for insomnia. At the risk of self-fulfilled prophesy, Mr. Shanahan's opening salvo from Edith Wharton says it best: "There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle or the mirror that reflects it." I'm reasonably certain he and I hold contrasting interpretations of her inference.
Rating: 
Summary: This is an excellent buy!!!
Review: I was so pleasantly surprised with this work. It puts such wonderful thoughts and sayings into one collection. I am very amazed with this book, and I think you will be also.
Rating:
Summary: This is an excellent buy!!!
Review: I was so pleasantly surprised with this work. It puts such wonderful thoughts and sayings into one collection. I am very amazed with this book, and I think you will be also.
Rating: 
Summary: Intelligent
Review: Insightful. Deep. Witty. Three words that accurately describe the thoughts, sayings, and quotes in this charming book about life, love, and relationships that span time. Highly recommended to read and think about.
Rating:
Summary: APOOR BOY WILL SURVIVE
Review: me and Robert had been to my uncles house where we had been playing music Robert was a guitar playermt uncal lemuel played and was a good singer i did not play.but i could sang a little we stoped about 8oclok it was dark and lemuel was drinking so we decided to go home lemuel didnt want us to go but we did he lived about a mile from town we headed home in town we were going down main st in the heart of town there was one main st and route70was the heart of town on one corner was a post office on the other side was a dry good store on the other corner was a hardware store going north on main past the drygood store two buildings from corner was the bank it was about 9oclok there were no body to be seen at that time they went to bed earley most houses did not have electric lights but all the stoors had electric lights as we walked on up main st i noticed a light in the bank it had a large windo in front the shade was down but you could see light around the edges we were at edge of the window when i could see light flashing and sparks flying and a noizethat i had heard before i had heard the sound before in a garage two buildings up the street when they would be cutting steel with a cutting torch or welding i mitend to robert to come on we went to the corner i turned right robert wanted to know where i was going i told him behind the bank to get a piece of ice.there was a place in back of bank that had a shed it had three sides and part of a roof it was full of saudust they keep ice under the sadust to deliver to the restaurants and houses yhat had ice boxes i took my stick it had a nail in the end of it and chiped us a piece of ice robert didn't want any he said i got to go home i told him to be quit my mind was going 90 miles a hour trying to figure out what they were doingin there robert said lets go i no iam going to find out what they are doing he said they are working in there i am going home i explained to him what i thought was going on he said they aint nobody that brave to try and rob the bank but he took notice when i said lets pick out a place to hide if they come out a alley ran in back of the bank across the alley was a big brick house it belonged to the man that owned the bank it was the biggest house in town that is where my mother works as a made they also owned the house we lived in my mother said thet were good to her miss sally maude was my 5 grade teacher she liked me had told me i was good at math she would bring me something to eat hide it in clok roome with a pint of milk she would find a way to tell me before lunch would let out.and miss crane another teacher would do the same thing when i was in her class they were good people and i thank them to this day there were a lot of days that is alli would get to eat that day. we had been sitting there for about 2 hours when robert nudged me there was a nois comming from the bank we ducked down the door opened the light was out 2 men came out they both were carying something you coulnt tell what .they walked wright past us we seen ho it was but they didnt see us iwas scared we kept listen for them they kept going down alleyi listened for acar to start but never did hear one.i am writing my life history i am 76years old the time all this started it was 1937 when this part happened this book will be through the thirties till i got out of navy in 1943 dewey laycox thank you
Rating:
Summary: Eloquent quotes compiled by a brilliant entreprenuer
Review: Mr. Shanahan has once again brought literacy to the masses. After creating and producing the wildly successful "Hooked on Phonics", he's compiled a book of spectacular quotes that enables even the least eloquent of us look like a Harvard scholar. Of particular interest are the sayings created by this brilliant entreprenuer. No library or bookshelf should be without this book.
Rating: 
Summary: John Shanahan Has Got to Be Kidding
Review: Mr. Shanahan shows unmitigated chutzpah in sprinkling sayings of his own throughout this book. That gives me an idea: I am putting together stories about the greatest moments in all of sports history, and will now include that time I hit a home run to win a big stick ball game when I was in the eighth grade. How can readers take this collection seriously when it is, at best, a cover for shameless self-promotion by its editor? Shame on Mr. Shanahan and shame on the publishers!
Rating:
Summary: Tripe
Review: Perhaps, if one is going to say that he's collected the "most brilliant thoughts of all time," he should review his grammar and note the difference between "two lines or less," and "two lines or fewer."
Rating:
Summary: Shameless Pandering to Stupid People in Search of Putdowns
Review: Save your money and hang onto your old Bartlett's Quotations. This pathetically mass marketed compilation is aimed squarely at dim bulbs whose idea of a good day is having been blessed with one timely scalding rejoinder. As if the Salieri of "Amadeus" could tap into Mozart's muse by reading a book. Brilliance out of context equals drivel. What a simple minded, mean spirited bore!
Rating:
Summary: Ignore the overstated title and find a few gems
Review: The overstated title sets aphorism afficionados up for disappointment. If the author had simply titled this collection "Personal Favorites," the reader might then have found more than he/she had expected. Shanahan may have made and earned his great success, but what can he have been thinking when he included his own personal sayings among "the most brilliant thoughts of all time"? To borrow from a friend, "one wishes someone else had said it."
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