He who trains his tongue to quote the learned sages will be known, far and wide, as a smart-ass. – Howard Kandel, The Power of Positive Pessimism: Proverbs for Our Times, 1964

Attend to me, Sancho, I do not say a proverb is amiss when aptly and seasonably applied; but to be for ever discharging them, right or wrong, hit or miss, renders conversation insipid and vulgar. – Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote de la Mancha, translated from Spanish

We love quotations; they strengthen us in our own belief; they show that some other spirit, perhaps a master-spirit, has gone thus far with us: to such we cling as the ivy to the oak. – S.J.W., “On Female Education,” in The Christian Teacher (National Review), 1835