Quotation, like much better things, has its abuses. One may quote till one compiles. The ancient lawyers used to quote at the bar till they had stagnated their own cause. – Isaac D’Israeli, “Quotation,” A Second Series of Curiosities of Literature

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

The adventitious beauty of poetry may be felt in the greater delight which a verse gives in happy quotation than in the poem. – Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Art”

Dr. [Richard] Bentley’s son reading a novel, the Doctor said, “Why read a book which you cannot quote?” – Walpoliana (Horace Walpole, John Pinkerton), “Useless Reading,” January 1800