You could compile, I should think, the worst book in the world entirely out of selecting passages from the best writers in the world. – G.K. Chesterton, “On Writing Badly”

Often we were rescued by that ever-present help in time of trouble, the beloved benefactor known only as “Anonymous.” – Frank Spencer Mead (1898–1982), preface to 12,000 Religious Quotations, 19

…have the same Use with Burning-Glasses, to collect the diffus’d Rays of Wit and Learning in Authors, and make them point with Warmth and Quickness upon the Reader’s Imagination. – Jonathan Swift, “A Letter of Advice to a Young Poet: Together With a Proposal fo

A well arranged scrapbook, filled with choice selections, is a most excellent companion for anyone who has the least literary taste. – Chaning, quoted in Sayings: Proverbs, Maxims, Mottoes by Charles F. Schutz, 1915