commonplace book

a book in which noteworthy quotations, comments, etc., are written.

Origin of commonplace book

First recorded in 1570–80

I have a commonplace-book for facts, and another for poetry.

Concord Days |A. Bronson Alcott
"I have my trade, a lame leg and the marks of smallpox—and I never was good-looking, anyway," he wrote in his commonplace-book.

Little Journeys to the Homes of the Great, Vol. 13 |Elbert Hubbard
She has evidently just taken up this study; her exercises show the same thoroughness she exhibited in her German commonplace-book.

The Story of a Life |J. Breckenridge Ellis
I did this in thirty pages of closely written matter, of which a pressed copy remains in my commonplace-book.

Unconscious Memory |Samuel Butler

Every one has his and her own way of keeping a commonplace-book.

The Private Library |Arthur L. Humphreys

commonplace book

a notebook in which quotations, poems, remarks, etc, that catch the owner's attention are entered