Do not shun this maxim because it is common-place. On the contrary, take the closest heed of what observant men, who would probably like to show originality, are yet constrained to repeat. Therein lies the marrow of the wisdom of the world. – Arthur Helps, “Chapter IV,” Companions of My Solitude, 1851

Idly curious race of grammarians, ye who dig up by the roots the poetry of others; unhappy bookworms that walk on thorns, defilers of the great… away with you, bugs that bite secretly the eloquent. – Antiphanes of Macedonia, in The Greek Anthology, Volume IV, “Book XI: The Conviv

….whether your jewel was got from the mine or from an auctioneer. – Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882), “Quotation and Originality,” Letters and

As proverbs are meant to be portable, it is essential that they should be packed up in few words… – “Proverbs Secular and Sacred,” The North British Review, February 1858