Authors

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

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

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

"You do not publish your own verses, Laelius; you criticise mine.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

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

"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?"

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

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

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

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

"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."

"E'en copious Dryden wanted, or forgot, The last and greatest art—the art to blot."

"Whether the darken'd room to muse invite, Or whiten'd wall provoke the skew'r to write; In durance, exile, Bedlam, or the Mint, Like Lee or Budgel I will rhyme and print."

"Let him be kept from paper, pen, and ink; So may he cease to write, and learn to think."

"'Tis not how well an author says, But 'tis how much, that gathers praise."

"As though I lived to write, and wrote to live."

"Lis ont les textes pour eux, mais j'en suis fache pour les textes."

"Devise, wit; write, pen; for I am for whole volumes in folio."

"Write till your ink be dry, and with your tears Moist it again, and frame some feeling line That may discover such integrity."

"Of all those arts in which the wise excel, Nature's chief masterpiece is writing well."

"Look in thy heart and write."

"The great and good do not die even in this world. Embalmed in books, their spirits walk abroad. The book is a living voice. It is an intellect to which one still listens."

"Ah, ye knights of the pen! May honour be your shield, and truth tip your lances ! Be gentle to all gentle people. Be modest to women. Be tender to children. And as for the Ogre Humbug, out sword, and have at him!"

"What the devil does the plot signify, except to bring in fine things?"

"So must the writer, whose productions should Take with the vulgar, be of vulgar mould."

"Smooth verse, inspired by no unlettered Muse."