[B]ut in literature, it should be remembered, a thing always becomes his at last who says it best, and thus makes it his own. – James Russell Lowell

I have drag-netted the ocean, as well as the numerous narrow streams and wide rivers of literature… – Frank J. Wilstach, A Dictionary of Similes, 1916

Seek not to know who said this or that, but take note of what has been said. – Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of Christ, translated from Latin

Platitude. An idea (a)that is admitted to be true by everyone, and (b)that is not true. – H.L. Mencken, “The Jazz Webster,” A Book of Burlesques, 1920