How many of us have been first attracted to reason, first learned to think, to draw conclusions, to extract a moral from the follies of life, by some dazzling aphorism from Rochefoucauld or La Bruyere. – Edward Lytton Bulwer

A beautiful verse, an apt remark, or a well-turned phrase, appropriately quoted, is always effective and charming. – Marie Anne de Vichy-Chamrond du Deffand

And in spite of his practical ability, some of his experience had petrified into maxims and quotations. – George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans), Daniel Deronda (Book II, Meeting Streams), 1876

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