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

We who are quotatious are never truly alone, but always hear the cheerful flow of remarks made by dead writers so much more intelligent than we. – Joseph Epstein, “Quotatious,” A Line Out for a Walk: Familiar Essays, 1991

The Grecian’s maxim would indeed be a sweeping clause in Literature; it would reduce many a giant to a pygmy; many a speech to a sentence; and many a folio to a primer. – C.C. Colton, “Preface,” Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words: Addressed To Those

A book of quotations… can never be complete. – Robert M. Hamilton