Collections of gnomes, adages, sayings, and parables have been made from times immemorial in all countries and in all languages possessing some kind of literature. – E.H. Michelsen, A Manual of Quotations from the Ancient, Modern, and Oriental La

Mr. [Thomas] Gray the poet has often observed to me that if a man were to form a Book of what he had seen and heard himself it must in whatever hands prove a most useful and entertaining one. – Horace Walpole, quoted in Walpoliana, 1800

I have heard that nothing gives an Author so great Pleasure, as to find his Works respectfully quoted by other learned Authors. – Benjamin Franklin, “Preface,” Poor Richard Improved, wording verified by Respect

When two seemingly conflicting thoughts have made it to proverb or aphorism status, usually, in the ambivalence of life, both are true. – Robert Irvine Fitzhenry (1918–2008), The Harper Book of Quotations