That part of a work of one author found in another is not of itself piracy, or sufficient to support an action; a man may adopt part of the work of another; he may so make use of another’s labors for the promotion of science and the benefit of the public. – Lord Ellenborough, quoted in Bouvier’s Law Dictionary by John Bouvier, 8th

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

Quotation mistakes, inadvertency, expedition, and human lapses, may make not only moles but warts in learned authors… – Thomas Browne, Christian Morals, 1716 (Part the Second, sect. ii)

[T]here are aphorisms that, like airplanes, stay up only while they are in motion. – Vladimir Nabokov, The Gift, 1963, translated from Russian by Michael Scammell