The wise men of old have sent most of their morality down the stream of time in the light skiff of apothegm or epigram; and the proverbs of nations, which embody the commonsense of nations, have the brisk concussion of the most sparkling wit. – Edwin P. Whipple, lecture delivered before the Boston Mercantile Library Associa

To quote copiously and well, requires taste, judgment, and erudition, a feeling for the beautiful, an appreciation of the noble, and a sense of the profound. – Christian Nestell Bovee, “Thought,” Institutions and Summaries of Thought, 1862

…I didn’t do anything that can properly be called research; rather, I proceeded by the methodless method of “determined browsing”— – Rudolf Flesch, on collecting excerpts for The Book of Unusual Quotations, 1957

The profoundest thought or passion sleeps as in a mine, until an equal mind and heart finds and publishes it. – Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Quotation and Originality,” Letters and Social Aims, 1876