But in the dying world I come from quotation is a national vice. No one would think of making an after-dinner speech without the help of poetry. It used to be the classics, now it’s lyric verse. – Evelyn Waugh, The Loved One: An Anglo-American Tragedy, 1948

When you see yourself quoted in print and you’re sorry you said it, it suddenly becomes a misquotation. – Laurence J. Peter, Peter’s Quotations: Ideas for Our Times, 1977

A good conversationalist is not one who remembers what was said, but says what someone wants to remember. – John Mason Brown

Sensible men show their sense by saying much in few words. Noble actions are the substance of life; good sayings its ornament and guide. – Charles Simmons, “Aphorisms Introductory,” Laconic Manual and Brief Remarker, 18