A good conversationalist is not one who remembers what was said, but says what someone wants to remember. – John Mason Brown

A case which commonly happens with us in London, as well as our Neighbours in Paris, where if a Witty Man starts a happy thought, a Million of sordid Imitators ride it to death. – Thomas Brown, Laconics: Or, New Maxims of State and Conversation

He repeated to himself an old French proverb that he had made up that morning. – F. Scott Fitzgerald