Way to incorporate this into writing

Hi. Let us pretend that I like someone's saying but I don't know the exact word, nor do I know the name of the person who said it. I might know what country he is from. What is a good way to incorporate it into my writing?

Let us pretend a saying is "XXX is no good unless you have a XXX for it."

Do you have a better way to write than this?

According to someone from XXX that I don't remember the name of, "XXX is no good unless you have a XXX for it." And this perfectly illustruates the point I was trying to make...