Quotations and winged words

Quotations and winged words refer to widely used sayings supposedly uttered by historical persons and to quotations that have acquired many characteristics of a proverb and usually have international currency. Like proverbs, winged words have an indefinite origin, express a didactic idea, and suffer changes in the process of oral transmission. They offer the advantage of supplying the user with a passage appropriate to a particular situation, but when too frequently used they lose their impact or lack contextual significance.