Why are not more gems from our great authors scattered over the country? Great books are not in everybodys reach; and though it is better to know them thoroughly than to know them only here and there, yet it is a good work to give a little to those who have not the time nor means to get more. – Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Besides, it happens (how, I cannot tell) that an idea launched like a javelin in proverbial form strikes with sharper point on the hearer’s mind and leaves implanted barbs for meditation… – Desiderius Erasmus, Adages

[S]ources are not too reliable. The words and thoughts are the thing. “The best words in the best order” is the object of all quotations. Who made the order and when is of interest, but not vital as the many quotations by “Anon.” testify. – Robert Irvine Fitzhenry (1918–2008), The Harper Book of Quotations