Brewer\'s famous Quotations goes far beyond the scope of most dictionaries of quotations to provide erudite and entertaining commentary on the origins and context of around 5000 quotations and the ways in which they have been used, misused or misconstrued.Carefully selected by Nigel Rees, the veteran writer and presenter of BBC Radio 4\'s Quote ... Unquote, this dictionary favours problematic quotations with interesting backgrounds and stories, such as the famous words of Neil Armstrong \"That\'s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind\", which were misheard by 600 million television viewers; and lines or titles from books, plays and films that have, like Catch-22, taken on a life of their own.Rees draws on an enormous fund of lexicographical expertise, historical research and illuminating anecdote as he explains why people said what they did, traces the fate of phrases such as Edmund Burke\'s \"the great unwashed\", and explores mysteries of attribution, including the untraceable Boscoe Pertwee and his single recorded utterance: \'\"I used to be indecisive, but now I\'m not so sure\".