Quotes for the Commonplace Notebook

Use your commonplace notebook for gathering meaningful (to you) quotes from your reading. Since you are always reading a book, this should be easy. Charlotte Mason homeschooling uses a commonplace notebook in the upper forms.

I use my commonplace journal for jotting down quotes that I particularly like while reading a book. I will sprinkle some of the quotes from my journal so you get an idea of what I like to include.

What is a commonplace notebook?

The commonplace book is your collection of ideas and notes from many places.

This is to be a collection without order, drawn from many papers, which I have copied here, hoping to arrange them later each in its place, according to the subjects of which they treat.
Leonardo Da Vinci

According to The British Library, Da Vinci kept a commonplace book of random notes and observations today called the Leonardo Notebook. He was not the first person to do so, nor the last.

Famous people who kept a commonplace notebook

Beethoven
Newton
Thomas Jefferson
Mark Twain
Lewis & Clark
Picasso
Beatrix Potter
George Lucas (Star Wars)

Modern Commonplace notebooks

Here are a few good places to check out the modern versions of this kind of notebook:

From the Green Notebook: How to keep a Notebook like Da Vinci
Simply Charlotte Mason: Forum thread on what is a commonplace journal
Simply Convivial: How I Use my Commonplace Journal
Ryan Holiday: How & Why to Keep a commonplace notebook
The Writing Cooperative

Starting a commonplace notebook

I have to admit – I am not much of a fan of journaling. But after I started using a dot journal, I can appreciate slowing down and taking a moment to write out great words.