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

The study of proverbs may be more instructive and comprehensive than the most elaborate scheme of philosophy. – Attributed to Motherwell in Pearls of Thought by Maturin M. Ballou, 1882

[B]ut in literature, it should be remembered, a thing always becomes his at last who says it best, and thus makes it his own. – James Russell Lowell

There is hardly a mistake which in the course of our lives we have committed, but some proverb, had we known and attended to its lesson, might have saved us from it. – Richard Chenevix Trench, Proverbs and Their Lessons, 1905