My quarrel with him is, that his works contain nothing worth quoting; and a book that furnishes no quotations, is me judice, no book,—it is a plaything. – Thomas Love Peacock, Crotchet Castle, 1831 (The Rev. Dr. Folliott)

The quotation-business is booming. No subdivision of the culture seems too narrow to have a quotation book of its own…. It would be an understatement to say that these books lean on one another. To compare them is to stroll through a glorious jungle of incestuous mutual plagiarism. – James Gleick, 1993

Sensible men show their sense by saying much in few words. Noble actions are the substance of life; good sayings its ornament and guide. – Charles Simmons, “Aphorisms Introductory,” Laconic Manual and Brief Remarker, 18