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”
The proverbs of a nation furnish the index to its spirit and the results of its civilization. – Timothy Titcomb (J.G. Holland), “An Exordial Essay,” Gold-foil: Hammered from Po
To appreciate and use correctly a valuable maxim requires a genius, a vital appropriating exercise of mind, closely allied to that which first created it. – William Rounseville Alger, “The Utility and the Futility of Aphorisms,” The Atla
Faulkner turned out to be a great teacher. When a student asked a question ineptly, he answered the question with what the student had really wanted to know. – Leslie Fiedler
