Most of the noted literary men have indulged in the prudent habit of selecting favorite passages for future reference. – Charles F. Schutz, Sayings: Proverbs, Maxims, Mottoes, 1915

I am wonderfully pleased when I meet with any passage in an old Greek or Latin author, that is not blown upon, and which I have never met with in any quotation. – Joseph Addison, Spectator, No.464

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

Aphorism, n.: A concise, clever statement you don’t think of until too late. – James Alexander Thom