"Every day brings a ship, Every ship brings a word; Well for those who have no fear, Looking seaward well assured That the word the vessel brings Is the word they wish to hear."

"Messenger of sympathy and love, Servant of parted friends, Consoler of the lonely, Bond of the scattered family, Enlarger of the common life."

"Carrier of news and knowledge, Instrument of trade and industry, Promoter of mutual acquaintance, Of peace and good-will Among men and nations."

"The welcome news is in the letter found; The carrier's not commission'd to expound; It speaks itself, and what it does contain, In all things needful to be known, is plain."

"He whistles as he goes, light-hearted wretch, Cold and yet cheerful; messenger of grief Perhaps to thousands, and of joy to some."

"(He) put that which was most material in the postscript."

"Thou bringest * * * * * letters unto trembling hands."

"I read Of that glad year that once had been, In those fall'n leaves which kept their green, The noble letters of the dead: And strangely on the silence broke The silent-speaking words."

"Let me hear from thee by letters."

"If this letter move him not, his legs cannot. I'll give 't him."

"Jove and my stars be praised! Here is yet a postcript."

"I have a letter from her Of such contents as you will wonder at: The mirth whereof so larded with my matter, That neither singly can be manifested, Without the show of both."

"What! have I 'scaped love-letters in the holiday-time of my beauty, and am I now a subject for them?"

"Tell him there's a post come from my master, with his horn full of good news."

"Here are a few of the unpleasant'st words That over blotted paper!"

"The letter is too long by half a mile."

"We beg leave to transport the reader to the back-parlour of the post-master's house at Fairport, where his wife, he himself being absent, was employed in assorting for delivery the letters which had come by the Edinburgh post. This is very often in country towns the period of the day when gossips find it particularly agreeable to call on the man or woman of letters, in order, from the outside of the epistles, and, if they are not belied, occasionally from the inside also, to amuse themselves with gleaning information, or forming conjectures about the correspondence and affairs of their neighbours."

"Heav'n first taught letters for some wretch's aid, Some banish'd lover, or some captive maid."

"Line after line my gushing eyes o'erflow, Led thro' a sad variety of woe: Now warm in love, now with'ring in my bloom, Lost in a convent's solitary gloom!"

"Soon as thy letters trembling I unclose, That well-known name awakens all my woes."

"It is said that as many days as there are in the whole journey, so many are the men and horses that stand along the road, each horse and man at the interval of a day's journey; and these are stayed neither by snow nor rain nor heat nor darkness from accomplishing their appointed course with all speed."

"'s innovations—charging by weight (instead of number of letter sheets), prepayment, and a uniform low rate of postage—long predated and provided a successful local-scale molde for Victorian postal reform."

"Carrier of news and knowledge Instrument of trade and industry Promoter of mutual acquaintance Of peace and of goodwill Among men and nations Messenger of sympathy and love Servant of parted friends Consoler of the lonely Bond of the scattered family Enlarger of the common life"

"Belshazzar had a letter,— He never had but one; Belshazzar's correspondence Concluded and begun In that immortal copy The conscience of us all Can read without its glasses On revelation's wall."

"Je reprends mon bien où je le trouve."

"Hos ego versiculos feci, tulit alter honores Sic vos non vobis nidificatis aves: Sic vos non vobis vellera fertis oves: Sic vos non vobis mellificatis apes: Sic vos non vobis fertis aratra boves."

"Nullum est jam dictum quod non dictum sit primus."

"Libertas et natale solum."

"The seed ye sow, another reaps; The wealth ye find, another keeps: The robes ye weave, another wears: The arms ye forge another bears."

"Leurs écrits sont des vois qu'ils nous ont faits d'avance."

"Take the whole range of imaginative literature, and we are all wholesale borrowers. In every matter that relates to invention, to use, or beauty or form, we are borrowers."

"He liked those literary cooks Who skim the cream of others' books; And ruin half an author's graces By plucking bon-mots from their places."

"Amongst so many borrowed things, am glad if I can steal one, disguising and altering it for some new service."

"Les abeilles pillotent decà delà les fleurs; mais elles en font aprez le miel, qui est tout leur; ce n'est plus thym, ny marjolaine: ainsi les pièces empruntées d'aultruy, il les transformera et confondra pour en faire un ouvrage tout sien."

"For such kind of borrowing as this, if it be not bettered by the borrower, among good authors is accounted plagiary."

"Why, simpleton, do you mix your verses with mine? What have you to do, foolish man, with writings that convict you of theft? Why do you attempt to associate foxes with lions, and make owls pass for eagles? Though you had one of Ladas's legs, you would not be able, blockhead, to run with the other leg of wood."

"My books need no one to accuse or judge you: the page which is yours stands up against you and says, "You are a thief.""

"When 'Omer smote 'is bloomin' lyre, He'd 'eard men sing by land an' sea; An' what he thought 'e might require, 'E went an' took—the same as me."

"He that readeth good writers and pickes out their flowres for his own nose, is lyke a foole."

"It has come to be practically a sort of rule in literature, that a man, having once shown himself capable of original writing, is entitled thenceforth to steal from the writings of others at discretion."

"When Shakespeare is charged with debts to his authors, Landor replies, "Yet he was more original than his originals. He breathed upon dead bodies and brought them into life.""

"Pereant qui ante nos nostra dixerent."

"The Plagiarism of orators is the art, or an ingenious and easy mode, which some adroitly employ to change, or disguise, all sorts of speeches of their own composition, or that of other authors, for their pleasure, or their utility; in such a manner that it becomes impossible even for the author himself to recognise his own work, his own genius, and his own style, so skilfully shall the whole be disguised."

"Because they commonly make use of treasure found in books, as of other treasure belonging to the dead and hidden underground; for they dispose of both with great secrecy, defacing the shape and image of the one as much as of the other."

"Who, to patch up his fame—or fill his purse— Still pilfers wretched plans, and makes them worse; Like gypsies, lest the stolen brat be known, Defacing first, then claiming for his own."

"Who borrow much, then fairly make it known, And damn it with improvements of their own."

"If any man be shocked that I admit my thefts, imitations, and plagiarisms so openly, it is because that man has not yet learned that only mediocre writers, also-rans, poseurs, cockatoos, and popinjays idolize creativity. Inquire, if you doubt my word, of Virgil and Milton, the greatest poet in the Latin and English tongue respectively."