But further, in order to embellish it with flowers of language and gems of thought, it is not necessary for this ornamentation to be spread evenly over the entire speech, but it must be so distributed that there may be brilliant jewels placed at various points as a sort of decoration. – Cicero, De oratore

Proverbs were bright shafts in the Greek and Latin quivers… – Isaac D’Israeli, “The Philosophy of Proverbs,” Curiosities of Literature,

The ability to quote is a serviceable substitute for wit. – Attributed to W. Somerset Maugham

I suppose every old scholar has had the experience of reading something in a book which was significant to him, but which he could never find again. Sure he is that he read it there; but no one else ever read it, nor can he find it again, though he buy the book and ransack every page. – Ralph Waldo Emerson