[B]ut in literature, it should be remembered, a thing always becomes his at last who says it best, and thus makes it his own. – James Russell Lowell

What a good thing Adam had — when he said a good thing, he knew nobody had said it before. – Mark Twain, 1867

The chief ingredients which go to make a true proverb are: sense, shortness, and salt. – James Howell, Paroimiografia, 1659