A bit of humorous irony …
So in my daily quotation binging, I posted this particular one from Hartley Coleridge (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hartley_Coleridge), the eldest son of Samuel Taylor Coleridge. He was writing about the practice by periodicals of the time of including little snippets or "excerpts" from famous works to fill out column space or break between major stories.
The impression one gets from the full quotation is that some people thought this was a Bad Thing, as it pulled material out of context and it discouraged people from seeking out and reading the originals ("Hey, I already read that cool quotation everyone knows from John Dryden — why read the whole thing?").
Hartley, on the other hand, was all for the practice, as something that would spread out "gems" to entice people who might not otherwise even think of reading that Dryden work — or, even better, provide at least some inspiration and enlightenment for people who simply didn't have access to Dryden.
The quotation — part of a footnote lamenting being unable to figure out where a given reference to the subject of his biographical essay came from, only that he had read the excerpt in a periodical — itself turned out to be highly popular and quotable. It was "excerpted" in a number of magazines and newspapers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The problem is, that, in keeping with the practice of the time, these excerpts didn't include a full citation, or even a title. And, in most cases, they just used the last name of the author.
The result? When you look up this quote (or the somewhat edited version that made all the excerpts), most sources, even from the era, attribute it to Hartley's father, the "famous" Coleridge. (That Hartley sank into alcoholic obscurity didn't help his cause.)
In sum, his sentiment about excerpts became itself an excerpt, but because of the shoddy practices of the day about excerpts it only attracted attention to his father's work.
(Well, I thought it was humorous and ironical.)
(See the Google+ version of the quote at https://plus.google.com/+WistInfo/posts/VYZHJTUD3Gy)
Coleridge, Hartley – Biographia Borealis: or, Lives of Distinguished Northerns, “Roger Ascham” (1833) | WIST
Why are not more gems from our early prose writers scattered over the country by the periodicals? Selections are so far from preventing the study of the en
