In these pages the novelist should be able to find a striking verse to head his chapter, the raconteur add to his bon mots, the man of the world enrich his stock of maxims, the divine obtain some deep thought drawn from the wells of ancient learning. – William Francis Henry King, “Introduction,” Classical and Foreign Quotations, 18

[A]s if it were not the masterful will which subjugates the forces of nature to be the genii of the lamp… that forces a life-thought into a pregnant word or phrase, and sends it ringing through the ages! – William Mathews, “Self-Reliance,” Getting on in the World; Or, Hints on Success

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

I believe it was Gayelord Hauser, the nutritionist, who said that “you are what you eat,” but if you happen to be an intellectual, you are what you quote. – Joseph Epstein, “Quotatious,” A Line Out for a Walk: Familiar Essays, 1991