Using quotations? Forum

[Adjudicator]

I've heard that you shouldn't use quotes from famous people, because it is a gimmick, it is cliche, etc. Are there exceptions to this rule?

I was a philosophy major in undergrad and I want to incorporate a line from Plato's "The Republic" somewhere in the opening of my statement, because it directly relates to a point that I am going to make.

If you want to know, the line is, "All things will be produced in superior quantity and quality, and with greater ease, when each man works at a single occupation in accordance with his natural gifts, and at the right moment, without meddling with anything else."

I would be referencing it in the middle of the paragraph, not setting it at the beginning like an epigraph. But is it still such a bad idea? I wouldn't want the reader to automatically dismiss my statement because of this. I can make my point without it, if that would be taken better.

[billyez]

We need to see how you utilize the reference in order to discern whether or not it would be wise to include it. My pre-law advisor was dead set against me using a quote from Emerson that I thought was weaved rather efficiently into my personal statement, but I found that she was correct in her assessment; it's your story, we want to hear your story and your words, not the words of others.

But still, write your statement and lets review it. There's no way we can guess about this without seeing the grand experiment of your writing first. Scientific method and all that.