Obviously it doesn't apply to all quotes. "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened" is a quote I have in my book. It's commonly attributed to Dr

Obviously it doesn't apply to all quotes. "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened" is a quote I have in my book. It's commonly attributed to Dr Seuss, but it's actually from a little known German poem. The actual origin of the quote isn't important. Just because it was (or wasn't as is the case) said by Dr Seuss doesn't mean that it's any more powerful or authoritative. Maybe it is a "trite aphorism", but I like it anyway, so in the book it went. As for your specific quote, I've never heard of Gertude Stein, so the name itself has no significance to me. And to be honest, after reading the wikipedia article on the quote, it still has no significance to me. So I'm not going to write that quote in my book.