Variant translation of Inventas aut qui vitam excoluere per artis : "It is of benefit to have improved life through discovered knowledge "; a paraphrase of this is inscribed on the Medicine and Physiology Nobel prize medals: Inventas vitam iuvat excoluisse per artes ("inventions enhance life which is beautified through art").
The generation of an infinite number of bogusly 'objective' sentences in an English of agonizing patchwork mediocrity is no cause for celebration, even if it eventually amounts to a Borgesian paraphrase of our entire universe. [...] I liked the internet better before. The mistakes had flavor, passion, transparent purpose.
The paraphrase by Dash appears to be the origin of later popularly attributed variants, e.g.:
edna st. vincent millayThe soul in paraphrase.
George HerbertBetter mendacities Than the classics in paraphrase!
The clumsiest literal translation is a thousand times more useful than the prettiest paraphrase.
vladimir nabokovThe rhetorical power of the narratives is obviously lost by means of propositional paraphrase, as is a portion of their meaning.