Next to the originator of a good sentence is the first quoter of it....
We are as much informed of a writer's genius by what he selects as by
what he originates. We read the quotation with his eyes, and find a new
and fervent sense; as a passage from one of the poets, well recited,
borrows new interest from the rendering. As the journals say, 'the
italics are ours.' The profit of books is according to the sensibility
of the reader. The profoundest thought or passion sleeps as in a mine,
until an equal mind and heart finds and publishes it. The passages of
Shakespeare that we most prize were never quoted until within this
century; and Milton's prose, and Burke, even, have their best fame
within it. Every one, too, remembers his friends by their favourite
poetry or other reading.
Observe, also, that a writer appears to more advantage in the pages of
another book than in his own. In his own, he waits as a candidate for
your approbation; in another's he is a lawgiver.--R. W. EMERSON.
_Quotation and Originality._