The profoundest thought or passion sleeps as in a mine, until an equal mind and heart finds and publishes it. – Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Quotation and Originality,” Letters and Social Aims, 1876

The epigram is a handy weapon, having the keenness of the stiletto, and its glitter. – William Watson, “A Note on Epigram,” 1883 [a little altered —tε&#5511

I had continued jotting down good lines—once the eyes and ears are awakened to the possibilities they can’t be put back to sleep… – Robert Byrne, The Third and Possibly the Best 637 Best Things Anybody Ever Said,

In these pages the novelist should be able to find a striking verse to head his chapter, the raconteur add to his bon mots, the man of the world enrich his stock of maxims, the divine obtain some deep thought drawn from the wells of ancient learning. – William Francis Henry King, “Introduction,” Classical and Foreign Quotations, 18