Proverbs are in the world of thought what gold coin is in the world of business—great value in small compass, and equally current among all people. Sometimes the proverb may be false, the coin counterfeit, but in both cases the false proves the value of the true. – Attributed to D. March in A Dictionary of Thoughts: A Cyclopedia of Laconic Quot

Ancient and modern languages teem with happily expressed sentiments of more or less force and beauty, sufficiently individualized and excellent to warrant their reproduction and classification. – Maturin M. Ballou, January 1886, preface to Edge-Tools of Speech

Whatever we think and say is wonderfully better for our spirits and trust in another mouth. – Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Quotation and Originality,” Letters and Social Aims, 1876

There are gems of thought that are ageless and eternal. – Cicero, quoted in Lillian Eichler Watson, Light from Many Lamps, 1951