Attend to me, Sancho, I do not say a proverb is amiss when aptly and seasonably applied; but to be for ever discharging them, right or wrong, hit or miss, renders conversation insipid and vulgar. – Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote de la Mancha, translated from Spanish

Most anthologists of quotations are like those who eat cherries or oysters; first picking the best ones and winding up by eating everything. – Sebastian Roch Nicolas Chamfort

To select well among old things is almost equal to inventing new ones. – Nicolas Charles Joseph Trublet

The epigram is a handy weapon, having the keenness of the stiletto, and its glitter. – William Watson, “A Note on Epigram,” 1883 [a little altered —tε&#5511