They are the abridgments of wisdom. – Sumner Ellis, Hints on Preaching: A Cloud of Witnesses, 1879

Misquotation is quotology’s swamp. Amateur quoters mix and mangle Shakespeare and Scripture. Professors gaffe and printers bungle. It’s a mess we must wade into. – Willis Goth Regier, Quotology, 2010

Colors fade, temples crumble, empires fall, but wise words endure. – Agnes Sybil Thorndike (1882–1976)

But, perhaps, the excellence of aphorisms consists not so much in the expression of some rare or abstruse sentiment, as in the comprehension of some obvious and useful truth in a few words. – Samuel Johnson, The Rambler, November 19, 1751