Discuss the use of quotations from literature in Fahrenheit 451. Which works are quoted and what effect does it have on the story?

There are almost too many allusions in this novel to
list.  I'll give you a few to help you get started.

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"It is computed that eleven thousand persons have
at several times suffered death, rather than submit to break their eggs at the smaller
end." (Very end of The Hearth and the
Salamander.)

This quote is
from Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels. It refers to a land where
Gulliver travels and the emperor has decreed that everyone break their boiled eggs at
the small end.  This decree leads to a war.  Swift himself was being satirical and
Bradbury likely uses this reference to emphasize how far humans will go to avoid
conformity.

We
cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed...so in a series of kindnesses
there is at last one which makes the heart run over." (Beginning of The Sieve and the
Sand)

This quote is from
James Boswell's Life of Dr. Johnson and it parallels Montag's
relationship with Clarisse.  He cannot understand why/how such a strange girl is
bringing so much joy into his life.

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Consider the lilies of the field... (The Sieve
and the Sand, while Montag is on the
subway.)

This is
an allusion to Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, found in Matthew 6.  In context it is a
reminder not to worry about material things, and in the context of the novel, it likely
refers to Montag's realization that his spiritual hunger is greater than his material
need.

Burning
Bright (title of Part
Three)

Reference to William
Blake's "The Tyger."  In the poem, the tiger is a symbol for a world where evil reigns,
but it goes on to discuss that everything in existence has a dual nature.  This title
for Part 3 is appropriate therefore, because as the world burns from the war at the end
of the book, there is a sense of hope for the future.

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There is no terror, Cassius, in your idle
threats, for I'm armed so strong in honesty... (middle of Burning Bright, Beatty vs.
Montag)

Beatty's
reference to Shakespeare's Julius Ceasar here is a bit ironic as he
is taunting Montag (who here would assumedly be Ceasar) and making fun of his new found
sense of right versus wrong and "honesty."