Search tips

By Drew Kaplan Finding Great Quotations is easy when you use DAK's Free Books 5000.com UNIQUE 'in context', memorable quotation finder. It's easy. Often you might just want to use one word for your search. But the real key to successful searching is simply knowing how to add words to your search. And I'll explain how to do that and much more below Here's how easy it is to find your quotation. 1) Single Word Search - Simply enter one keyword and click 'Search'. You'll instantly see all the quotations in the database that contain your keyword. It's great for picking quotations for your eCards, for brainstorming when you're writing, and to help motivate a friend or a loved one, or even yourself with great thoughts. Example: Enter the word 'LOVE'. You will get returns (hits) for every literary quotation in our database that contains the word 'LOVE'. You'll find that your word is both highlighted and displayed in red within each quotation on our 'Search Return' pages, so you can see exactly how the word relates to the quotation. You can click 'See This Quote In Context' to better see what the author meant, send your quotation as an eCard, or refine your search. I think you'll find the integration of the quotation with its 'IN CONTEXT' form is UNMATCHED anywhere. Note: We keep your search keyword(s) ACTIVE in the search box so you can refine your search. Or, you can Click 'Clear' if you want to perform a new search. 2) Multiple Word Search - Here's where it gets fun. What if you want a quotation that deals with or contains 2 words or ideas, or you want to use variations of a word to find the concept that you want? Examples: Enter 'LOVE' 'ROSE'. (NOTE: I add the AND in between the words automatically for you so YOU DON'T HAVE TO.) This will return only pages that contain BOTH the words 'LOVE' AND 'ROSE. But there's more. You can select 'LOVE' OR 'ROSE, and you'll get quotations that contain EITHER the word 'LOVE' or the word 'ROSE'. Here's an example of what you might find, "Loveliest of lovely things are they, On earth, that soonest pass away. The rose that lives its little hour. Is prized beyond the sculptured flower." Wow! Great thoughts. Plus, what if you want to use other words LIKE 'love'. Click the OR button and enter your words. That's what I did for the 'Search Idea Tips' and 'Top eCard Search Tips' at the top of the search pages. Instead of just entering 'LOVE', I AUTOMATICALLY entered Love OR Cherish OR Enjoy OR Admire OR Covet OR Treasure OR Adore OR Idolize OR Revere OR Venerate OR Worship OR Esteem. Sure the concept is a little broader than just LOVE, but what a great way to find the perfect quotation to express your thought or just to brainstorm when you're writing. And you can see how easy this is to do yourself. Remember, that when you Click the Or button, you don't need to enter OR in the search box because I've done for you. 3) Exact Phrase Search - This is an excellent way to find a quotation you're heard about and now want to see in context, or to get the exact wording. Simply enter a few words in the correct order and click 'Exact Phrase' then Click Search. HINT. If you're looking for a specific quotation, you'll probably do better just typing in a few words, not the complete quotation. Plus, because many of the quotations are either translated or paraphrased before you hear them, it pays to experiment with similar words. . Example: Enter "love conquers." (You don't need quote marks when you enter the quote, because I do it for you when you click the 'Exact Phrase Button' below the search box.) This will return only quotation return pages where the exact phrase "Love Conquers" occurs. Take care when you enter a phrase. Look at the quotations below. The first quotation in each example is slightly different than the second. So you can see that there are advantages to using different forms of words in your searches and only using a few of the words in order. It's a good bet that if you enter a phrase and don't get the 'hit' you want, that if you only enter a few words and change to AND in the search engine box, you'll find your quotation. And don't forget, every quotation is just one click away from the context in which it was written. This will allow you to understand the author's meaning as never before. Note the differences between the 'identical' quotations below. "Love conquers all things; let us too surrender to Love" "Love conquers all things; yield we too to love!" In this country it is useful from time to time to kill one admiral in order to encourage the others In this country it is found requisite, now and then, to put an admiral to death, in order to encourage the others. OK, here are some quick easy search aids. Search By Author - If you don't enter any search words in the search box, but simply select any of the 276 authors from the pull down menu, you'll find all the quotations that we have in our database from each author you choose. (Note: We don't have quotations yet from every author on the site, but on the FREE CD, every word we have is full-text searchable.) Or, you can limit any of the word searches by author. So, for example, you could search for love and limit the search to Shakespeare. Then you'd only get returns (hits) for quotations containing the word love, AND written by Shakespeare. Top eCard Search Ideas- Top Quotation Search Ideas- For these great idea starting boxes at the top of the search pages, I've taken words that I or you readers have used to search for a subject. These Search Helpers give you a very broad search criteria for each subject. (This means that not all the quotations will be relevant to your search, but it's a great way to explore ideas. After all, if you're searching for money, you might as well include Dollar OR Cash OR Capital OR Fund OR Savings OR Treasure OR Plunder OR Spoils OR Assets OR Possessions OR Estate OR Fortune OR Inheritance OR Riches OR Wealth OR Coffers OR Currency OR Income OR Riches OR Profit OR Purse. Case insensitive- I've made all the searches case insensitive. So, it doesn't matter if you capitalize or no, use 'Love' or 'love', 'Cleopatra' or 'cleopatra'. You'll find what you're looking for and the search results will be shown as they were written. Partial Or Whole Words - This is a great way to find all forms of a word. If you are searching for Friend, why not include friends, friendship, friendly and more. This widens your search so that you don't miss the perfect quotation to exactly express your thought because you didn't add an 's', or use the long form of the word. It's a great way to search. I hope you find all the quotations you desire to help express yourself powerfully, yet sensitively, and to help motivate others and to allow you valuable personal introspection and brainstorming about the world around us. I love quotations and what they can do for my spirit. I hope you enjoy these quotations by the literary masters of all time.