You read something good, underline it, and a month later you can’t find it or remember which book it was in. A commonplace book fixes that.
It’s a notebook where you copy out the passages, quotes, facts and ideas you want to keep, each under a heading, so you can find them again when you need them. People have kept them for centuries, and the method hasn’t needed much updating.
A commonplace book is a personal notebook of passages, quotes, facts and ideas copied from what you read and hear, organized under topic headings so you can find them again. Unlike a diary, it collects other people’s words alongside your own thoughts about them. All you need is a notebook, a pen and something to read.
The short version
- A commonplace book collects things worth keeping: quotes, passages, facts, ideas and your notes on them.
- Every entry gets a heading (a topic like “Patience” or “Cooking”) and a source.
- Copy by hand if you can. It’s slow enough to make you choose what’s worth keeping.
- Index your headings so the book stays useful as it fills up. John Locke published a method for this in 1685.
- A notebook, index cards or a notes app all work. Pick the one you’ll keep using.
Make a commonplace entry
Type a passage you liked, where it came from, a heading and a line about why you kept it. The card builds as you type, and you can print it or copy it into your notebook.
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Your first commonplace entry
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What is a commonplace book?
A commonplace book is a notebook for collecting passages, quotations, facts and observations under headings, so they can be found and reused. Merriam-Webster defines it simply as “a book of memorabilia” and dates the term to 1572. Scholars, writers and students kept them for centuries as a working memory for what they read.
The name comes from “commonplaces,” the old term for general topics or headings under which ideas could be filed. A reader would copy a striking line from a book under a heading like “Friendship” or “Death,” and over the years the book became a personal reference library, sorted by subject rather than by date.
The best-known method for organizing one comes from the philosopher John Locke. He published it in French in 1685, and an English translation, A New Method of Making Common-Place-Books, appeared in 1706, after his death. The Public Domain Review has the history and scans of the pages, and the full 1706 book is on the Internet Archive.
How is a commonplace book different from a journal?
A journal records your life, usually in date order. A commonplace book records what you read and learn, organized by topic. A journal asks what happened; a commonplace book asks what was worth keeping. Many people keep both, and some keep a section of each in the same notebook.
| Commonplace book | Journal | |
|---|---|---|
| Main content | Quotes, passages, facts, ideas | Your days, thoughts and feelings |
| Organized by | Topic headings | Date |
| Whose words | Mostly other people’s, plus your notes | Mostly yours |
| You go back to it | To find something on a topic | To remember a time |
| Best for | Readers, writers, students | Anyone |
The two work well together. A journal entry about a hard week sits nicely beside a commonplace heading of things you’ve read about getting through one.
How do you start a commonplace book?
To start a commonplace book, choose a notebook or a box of index cards, read with a pencil and mark what stands out, then copy the best passages out later with the source and a topic heading. Add a line of your own under each one. Start with whatever you’re reading this week.
Pick a format
A plain notebook is the classic choice. Index cards are easier to reorder: the author Ryan Holiday uses 4×6 cards with the topic written in the top corner. A notes app works too, if you’ll use it.
Read with a pencil
Underline, mark the margin or fold the corner when something stands out. Don’t stop to copy it out yet. Keep reading.
Wait, then copy
Go back to your marks after you finish the book. Holiday waits a week before transferring his, so only the passages that still seem worth it make the cut. You’ll copy fewer, better lines.
Give each entry a heading and a source
Write the topic at the top, the passage in the middle and the author, title and page at the bottom. Without the source, you won’t be able to quote it or find it again.
Add one line of your own
Write why you kept it, what it reminded you of or where you might use it. This is what turns a quote collection into a thinking tool.
How do you organize a commonplace book?
Organize a commonplace book by topic headings plus an index. Give every entry a heading, number your pages, and keep an index at the front or back listing each heading with its page numbers. John Locke’s method used a two-page index sorted by a heading’s first letter and first vowel.
Locke’s index is a neat trick for a paper notebook. He made a grid on two pages with a box for each letter of the alphabet, split by the five vowels. To file an entry under “Patience,” you look at the first letter (P) and the first vowel after it (a), and write the page number in the P-a box. “Poetry” goes in P-o. The index stays small, and any heading can be found in seconds.
A simpler version works for most people:
- Number every page before you start.
- Keep an index on the last few pages: heading, then page numbers.
- Reuse headings. When you add a new “Patience” entry on page 48, add 48 to the existing line in the index.
- Allow a “Misc” heading for things that don’t fit yet.
On index cards, the heading in the corner is the index. Sort the cards by heading in a box and you’re done.
What should you put in a commonplace book?
Put in anything you want to keep and find again: quotes and passages from books, lines from talks or podcasts, facts, recipes, advice from friends, ideas of your own, words you like and lists of books to read. If you’d be annoyed to lose it, it belongs in the book.
Some things people collect:
- Passages from books, with page numbers
- Quotes from people you know, not only famous ones
- Facts and statistics you want to remember, with the source
- Recipes, remedies and how-to notes
- Ideas for projects, stories or businesses
- New words and what they mean
- Titles to read, watch or listen to next
If most of what you collect comes from books, a reading journal gives each book its own page.
Commonplace book examples
A commonplace entry has four parts: a heading, the passage, the source and your note. Here are three examples, two from public-domain books and one everyday entry, to show the layout. Yours can be as short or as long as you like.
Heading: Reading “Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.” Francis Bacon, “Of Studies,” Essays (1625) Note: Writing things down is what makes them exact. Good argument for this whole notebook.
Heading: Time “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life.” Henry David Thoreau, Walden (1854), chapter 2 Note: “Deliberately” is the key word. A good question to ask of an ordinary week.
Heading: Cooking “Salt the pasta water until it tastes like the sea.” A friend, over dinner (write who and when) Note: Advice from people you know belongs here as much as anything from a book.
Can you keep a digital commonplace book?
Yes. A notes app, a document or a note-taking tool works as a commonplace book if you give each note a heading or tag and the source. Digital books are searchable and easy to back up. You lose some of the slow, deliberate copying that makes handwritten ones memorable, so it suits people who capture more than they reread.
Use tags instead of an index, keep one note per passage, and always paste the source with it. Some people capture digitally during the week and copy the best entries into a paper book on Sunday.
For other ways to keep a journal, from morning pages to junk journals, see the types of journaling guide.
Commonplace book FAQs
Who kept commonplace books?
Scholars, writers and students across Europe kept them for centuries, and John Locke published a method for organizing one in 1685. Ryan Holiday, who keeps one on index cards, lists Marcus Aurelius, Montaigne and Thomas Jefferson among famous keepers.
How often should you add to a commonplace book?
Whenever you finish something worth keeping. Some people add entries after every book, others once a week. There’s no minimum. The book grows at the speed you read.
Is a commonplace book the same as a quote journal?
A quote journal is one kind of commonplace book. A full commonplace book also holds facts, ideas, recipes and your own notes, and it’s organized by topic so you can use it, not just reread it.
What notebook is best for a commonplace book?
Any notebook with numbered pages, or one you number yourself. A lay-flat, lined notebook makes copying long passages easier. Leave a few pages at the back for the index.
Mike Arnold
Mike is a first-year counselling student who has journaled on and off for most of his life. He writes the how-to guides and the occasional bit of philosophy. About our writers
