Nevertheless, a maxim does not necessarily become a proverb. Many grubs never grow to butterflies; and a maxim is only a proverb in its caterpillar stage—a candidate for a wider sphere and longer flight than most are destined to attain. – “Proverbs Secular and Sacred,” The North British Review, February 1858

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

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

The attribution of a speaker is in fact a part of the quotation. Some statements simply are better if a certain famous person said them. – Gary Saul Morson, “Bakhtin, The Genres of Quotation, and The Aphoristic Consciou