Authors

"Indeed, unless a man can link his written thoughts with the everlasting wants of men, so that they shall draw from them as from wells, there is no more immortality to the thoughts and feelings of the soul than to the muscles and the bones."

"A man of moderate Understanding, thinks he writes divinely: A man of good Understanding, thinks he writes reasonably."

"A man starts upon a sudden, takes Pen, Ink, and Paper, and without ever having had a thought of it before, resolves within himself he will write a Book; he has no Talent at Writing, but he wants fifty Guineas."

"And so I penned It down, until at last it came to be, For length and breadth, the bigness which you see."

"Writers, especially when they act in a body and with one direction, have great influence on the public mind."

"The book that he has made renders its author this service in return, that so long as the book survives, its author remains immortal and cannot die."

"Dear authors! suit your topics to your strength, And ponder well your subject, and its length; Nor lift your load, before you're quite aware What weight your shoulders will, or will not, bear."

"La pluma es lengua del alma."

"Apt Alliteration's artful aid."

"That writer does the most, who gives his reader the most knowledge, and takes from him the least time."

"Habits of close attention, thinking heads, Become more rare as dissipation spreads, Till authors hear at length one general cry Tickle and entertain us, or we die!"

"None but an author knows an author's cares, Or Fancy's fondness for the child she bears."

"So that the jest is clearly to be seen, Not in the words— but in the gap between; Manner is all in all, whate'er is writ, The substitute for genius, sense, and wit."

"Oh! rather give me commentators plain, Who with no deep researches vex the brain; Who from the dark and doubtful love to run, And hold their glimmering tapers to the sun."

"Aucun fiel n'a jamais empoisonne ma plume."

"Smelling of the lamp."

"Gracious heavens!" he cries out, leaping up and catching hold of his hair, "what's this? Print!"

"And choose an author as you choose a friend."

"The men, who labour and digest things most, Will be much apter to despond than boast; For if your author be profoundly good, 'Twill cost you dear before he's understood."

"When I want to read a book I write one."

"The author who speaks about his own books is almost as bad as a mother who talks about her own children."

"The unhappy man, who once has trail'd a pen, Lives not to please himself, but other men; Is always drudging, wastes his life and blood, Yet only eats and drinks what you think good."

"All writing comes by the grace of God, and all doing and having."

"For no man can write anything who does not think that what he writes is, for the time, the history of the world."

"The lover of letters loves power too."

"The writer, like a priest, must be exempted from secular labor. His work needs a frolic health; he must be at the top of his condition."

"Like his that lights a candle to the sun."

"Envy's a sharper spur than pay: No author ever spar'd a brother; Wits are gamecocks to one another."

"The most original modern authors are not so because they advance what is new, but simply because they know how to put what they have to say, as if it had never been said before."

"One writer, for instance, excels at a plan, or a title-page, another works away the body of the book, and a third is a dab at an index."

""The Republic of Letters" is a very common expression among the Europeans."

"Their name, their years, spelt by the unlettered Muse."

"His [Burke's] imperial fancy has laid all nature under tribute, and has collected riches from every scene of the creation and every walk of art."

"Whatever an author puts between the two covers of his book is public property; whatever of himself he does not put there is his private property, as much as if he had never written a word."

"But every little busy scribbler now Swells with the praises which he gives himself; And, taking sanctuary in the crowd, Brags of his impudence, and scorns to mend."

"Deferar in vicum vendentem thus et odores, Et piper, et quicquid chartis amicitur ineptis."

"Piger scribendi ferre laborem; Scribendi recte, nam ut multum nil moror."

"Saepe stilum vertas, iterum quae digna legi sint Scripturus."

"Written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond."

"He [Milton] was a Phidias that could cut a Colossus out of a rock, but could not cut heads out of cherry stones."

"Each change of many-coloured life he drew, Exhausted worlds and then imagined new* Existence saw him spurn her bounded reign, And panting Time toil'd after him in vain."

"The chief' glory of every people arises from its authors."

"Tenet insanabile multo Scribendi cacoethes, et asgro in corde senescit."

"Damn the age; I will write for Antiquity."

"To write much, and to write rapidly, are empty boasts. The world desires to know what you have done, and not how you did it."

"If you once understand an author's character, the comprehension of his writings becomes easy."

"Perhaps the greatest lesson which the lives of literary men teach us is told in a single word* Wait!"

"Whatever hath been written shall remain, Nor be erased nor written o'er again; The unwritten only still belongs to thee* Take heed, and ponder well what that shall be."

"Look, then, into thine heart and write!"

"It may be glorious to write Thoughts that shall glad the two or three High souls, like those far stars that come in sight Once in a century."