All of which is preface to my pointing out that wisdom literature is part sapience, part sappiness. That's to say, it often contains the felicitous expression of homely truths. Read too many of these wisdoms at one sitting, though, and this sort of literature begins to cloy. And in that it's not unlike divinity fudge. The first piece is supreme: the second, divine; but by the third, one can feel the fur beginning to grow on the roof of one's mouth.
— Thomas a Kempis , The Imitation of Christ by William Griffin, translator, Thomas a Kempis