Then your words of abuse today may turn into a universally valid principle of denigration, for words are magical formulae. They leave fingermarks behind on the brain, which in the twinkling of an eye becomes the footprints of history. One ought to watch one’s every word. – Franz Kafka, quoted by Gustav Janouch, Conversations with Kafka

Miss Amesbury is especially happy in the use of quotations—and an apt quotation is like a lamp which flings its light over the whole sentence. – L.E. Landon, Romance and Reality, 1832

A beautiful verse, an apt remark, or a well-turned phrase, appropriately quoted, is always effective and charming. – Marie Anne de Vichy-Chamrond du Deffand

A quote is just a tattoo on the tongue. – Attributed to William F. DeVault