Reading the quote it strikes me as something written by someone who wrote for a living. My first thought was Whitman, but you said it wasn't him, so I thought maybe Raymond. How about George Townsend?
Best
Rob]
Abraham Lincoln is the only man, dead or alive, with whom I could have spent five years without one hour of boredom.
--Ida M. Tarbell
I want the respect of intelligent men, but I will choose for myself the intelligent.