While this was never a conventional research effort, with references and citations, I read a lot of books and had a core group which I used for direct reference in its originations.

Primary references:

• Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language, India Paper Edition, G. & C. Merriam Company, Springfield, Mass, USA, 1913
• Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language, Second Edition, Unabridged, G. & C. Merriam Company, Springfield, Mass, USA, 1961
• Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged, Encyclopædia Brittanica, Inc., Chicago, Illinois, USA; © G. & C. Merriam Company, 1966; (in three volumes)
• The Devil's Dictionary, Ambrose Bierce, Dover Publications, Inc., New York, 1958; SBN 486-20487-1, LOC 62-6806
• The New Roget's Thesaurus In Dictionary Form, ed. Norman Lewis, G. P. Putnam's Sons, Inc., New York, NY, 1966
• Familiar Quotations, A Collection of Passages, Phrases and Proverbs, Traced to Their Sources in Ancient and Modern Literature by John Bartlett, Twelfth Edition, ed. Christoper Morley, Little, Brown and Company, Boston, 1951
• Dorland's Medical Dictionary, Shorter Edition, W.B.Saunders Company, Philadelphia, © 1980, 1977 by W.B.Saunders Company; ISBN 0-03-056744-0, LOC 79-67113
• Shakespeare, Major Plays and the Sonnets, ed. G.B.Harrison, Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York, 1960, © 1948 Harcourt, Brace and Company
• Funk & Wagnall's New Practical Standard Dictionary of the English Language, ed. Charles E. Funk, New York, 1961
• The Notebooks of Lazarus Long, Robert A. Heinlein, G.P.Putnam's Sons, New York, 1978; SBN 399-12242-7, LOC 78-8050
• The Notebooks of Frank Herbert's Dune, ed. Brian Herbert, Perigee Books, New York, 1988; ISBN 0-399-51466-X, LOC 87-32723
• and, of course, a lot of time on the World Wide Web, including Project Gutenberg.

Secondary references and sources of inspiration:

• Holman Edition, The Holy Bible, A.J.Holman & Co., Philadelphia, date unknown
• The Holy Bible, Authorized King James Version, Collin's Clear-type Press, London, 1936
• The Jerusalem Bible, Reader's Edition, Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, NY, 1968
• The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, ed. William Morris, American Heritage Publishing Co., Inc., New York, 1975; ISBN 395-09066-0, LOC 76-86995
• The Two Cultures and the Scientific Revolution, C.P.Snow, Cambridge University Press, New York, 1963
• The Angel's Dictionary, E.H.Volkart, Franklin Watts, New Yourk, 1986; ISBN 0-531-15001-1, LOC 86-13292
• The Discourses, Niccolo Machiavelli, Penguin Books, 1983
• Singular Travels, Campaigns and Adventures of Baron Munchausen, R.E. Raspe and others, Dover Publications, Inc., New York, NY, 1960
• The Works of Lewis Carroll, Paul Hamlyn, London, 1965
• The Annotated Snark, Martin Gardner, Bramhall House, New York, 1962; LOC 61-16553
• Science and Sanity, An Introduction to Non-Aristotelian Systems and General Semantics, Foruth Edition, Alfred Korzybski, The International Non-Aristotelian Library Publishing Company, 1958; LOC 58-6260
• The Passover Plot, Dr. Hugh J. Schonfield, Bantam Books, New York, 1967
• Herblock Special Report, Herbert Block, W.W.Norton & Company, Inc., New York, 1974; ISBN 0-393-08708-5
• The Herblock Book, Herbert Block, The Beacon Press, Boston, 1952
• Herblock's Here and Now, Herbert Block, Simon and Schuster, New York, 1955
• Herblock's State of the Union, Herbert Block, Grossman Publishers, New York, 1974; SBN 670-36872-5, LOC 73-16562
• And I Quote, Applewhite, Evans III and Frothingham, St. Martin's Press, New York, 1992; ISBN 0-312-06897-2, LOC 91-36742
• Crisp Toasts, Wm. R. Evans III & Andrew Frothingham, St. Martin's Press, New York, 1992; ISBN 0-312-08171-5, LOC 92-26159
• Well-Done Roasts, Wm. R. Evans III & Andrew Frothingham, St. Martin's Press, New York, 1992; ISBN 0-312-08334-3, LOC 92-26158
• The Viking Book of Aphorisms, W.H.Auden and L. Kronenberger, Barnes & Noble, Inc., New York, 1993; ISBN 0-88029-056-0
• 20,000 Quips & Quotes, Evan Esar, Barnes & Noble, Inc., 1995; ISBN 1-56619-529-2
• Respectfully Quoted, ed. Suzy Platt, Barnes & Noble, Inc., 1993; ISBN 0-88029-768-9,
• The Great Quotations, ed. George Seldes, Citadel Press, Secaucus, NJ, 1983; ISBN 0-8065-0817-5, LOC 58-10231
• The Official Rules, Paul Dickson, Delacorte Press, New York, 1979; ISBN 0-440-06545-3, LOC 78-11856
• The New Official Rules, Paul Dickson, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc., Reading, Massachusetts, 1989; ISBN 0-201-17276-3, LOC 88-37324
• The New Hacker's Dictionary, ed. Eric Raymond, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1991; ISBN 0-262-68069-6, LOC 91-18745
• The Portable Curmudgeon, Redux, ed. Jon Winokur, Penguin Books USA, 1992; ISBN 0-525-93489-8, LOC 92-7692
• The Cynic's Lexicon, Jonathan Green, St. Martin's Press, New York, 1984; ISBN 0-312-18055-1, LOC 85-18961
• The Closet, debut edition, Gary De Maria, Strawberry Hill Press, San Francisco, 1980
• and a whole lot of others, including a wide range of science fiction, especially by Robert A Heinlein, Poul Anderson, Isaac Asimov, Mack Reynolds, Murray Leinster, Keith Laumer, Larry Niven and too many others to list.