No, Sir, it is a good thing; there is a community of mind in it. Classical quotation is the parole of literary men all over the world. – Samuel Johnson, quoted in The Life of Samuel Johnson by James Boswell, Volume II
Gnomic wisdom, however, is notoriously polychrome, and proverbs depend for their truth entirely on the occasion they are applied to. Almost every wise saying has an opposite one, no less wise, to balance it… – George Santayana, “Chapter VIII: Prerational Morality,” The Life of Reason: Volu

