"Why did I write? what sin to me unknown Dipt me in ink, my parents', or my own? As yet a child, nor yet a fool to fame, I lisp'd in numbers, for the numbers came."

"Scriptaferuntannos; scriptis Agamemnona nosti, Et quisquis contra vel simul arma tulit."

"Prsebet mihi littera linguam: Et, si non liceat scribere, mutus ero."

"To write upon all is an author's sole chance For attaining, at last, the least knowledge of any."

"The ink of the scholar is more sacred than the blood of the martyr."

"He who writes distichs, wishes, I suppose, to please by brevity. But, tell me, of what avail is their brevity, when there is a whole book full of them?"

"Jack writes severe lampoons on me, 'tis said—But he writes nothing, who is never read."

"You do not publish your own verses, Laelius; you criticise mine. Pray cease to criticise mine, or else publish your own."

"No author ever drew a character, consistent to human nature, but what he was forced to ascribe to it many inconsistencies."

"He who writes prose builds his temple to Fame in rubble; he who writes verses builds it in granite."

"He that commeth in print because he woulde be knowen, is like the foole that commeth into the Market because he woulde be seen."

"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."

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

"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."

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

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

"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."

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

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

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

"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."

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

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

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

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

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

"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."

"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."

"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."

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

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

"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 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."

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

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

"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."

"The lover of letters loves power too."

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

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

"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."

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

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

"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."

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

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

"Smelling of the lamp."

"An autobiography is only 'a sort of life' – it may contain less errors of fact than a biography, but it is of necessity even more selective: it begins later and it ends prematurely."

"I dislike modern memoirs. They are generally written by people who have either entirely lost their memories, or have never done anything worth remembering, which, however, is, no doubt, the true explanation of their popularity, as the English public always feels perfectly at its ease when a mediocrity is talking to it."

"I have always hated biography, and more especially, autobiography. If biography, the writer invariably finds it necessary to plaster the subject with praises, flattery, and adulation and to invest him with all the Christian graces. If autobiography, the same plan is followed, but the writer apologizes for it."