Motivational proverb

One must be a wise reader to quote wisely and well. -Amos Bronson Alcott

The maxims of men disclose their hearts. - French Proverb

To select well among old things, is almost equal to inventing new ones. - Nicholas Charles Trublet

I have gathered a posie of other men's flowers, and nothing but the thread that binds them is my own. -Michel de Montaigne

Proverbs are mental gems gathered in the diamond districts of the mind. - William R. Alger

What gems of painting or statuary are in the world of art, or what flowers are in the world of nature, are gems of thought to the cultivated and the thinking. - Oliver Wendell Holmes

Stealing someone else's words frequently spares the embarrassment of eating your own. - Peter Anderson

A short saying oft contains much wisdom. - Sophocles

It often happens that the quotations constitute the most valuable part of a book. - Vicesimus Knox

A collection of rare thoughts is nothing less than a cabinet of intellectual gems.- William B. Sprague

Good sayings are like pearls strung together. - Chinese Proverb

A proverb is to speech what salt is to food. - Arabic Proverb

Proverbs are the cream of a nation's thought. -Unknown

There is not less wit, not less invention, in applying rightly a thought one finds in a book, than in being the first author of that book. - Pierre Boyle

A proverb is much matter decocted into few words. -Thomas Fuller

A maxim is the exact and noble expression of an important and indisputable truth. Good maxims are the germs of all excellence; when firmly fixed on the memory, they nourish the will. - Joseph Joubert

It is delightful to transport one's self into the spirit of the past, to see how a wise man has thought before us, and to what glorious height we have at last reached. -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Time is of of no account with great thoughts, which are as fresh today as when they first passed through their authors' minds ages ago. - Samuel Smiles

The diamond may adorn royalty, regardless of personal worth; but jewels of thought render even poverty illustrious and sublime. 

- found in Gems for the Fireside

Proverbs may be said to be the abridgment of wisdom. -Joseph Joubert

The proverb answers where the sermon fails. - W. G. Simms