He who trains his tongue to quote the learned sages will be known, far and wide, as a smart-ass. – Howard Kandel, The Power of Positive Pessimism: Proverbs for Our Times, 1964
So our student will flit like a busy bee through the entire garden of literature, light on every blossom, collect a little nectar from each, and carry it to his hive… – Desiderius Erasmus, De Copia, 1512, translated
Thus have I, as well as I could, gathered a posey of observations as they grew; and if some rue and wormwood be found among the sweeter herbs, their wholesomeness will make amends for their bitterness. – Lord Lyttleton
People have to talk about something just to keep their voice boxes in working order so theyll have good voice boxes in case theres ever anything really meaningful to say. – Kurt Vonnegut
If a student takes the whole series of my folklore courses including the graduate seminars, he or she should learn something about fieldwork, something about bibliography, something about how to carry out library research, and something about how to publish that research. – Alan Dundes
