Authorship Quotes

• The trade of authorship is a violent, and indestructible obsession.

  George Sand

  Writing, Obsession, Violent

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• The pen is the tongue of the mind.

  Miguel de Cervantes

  Teacher, Writing, Mind

  Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (1867). “Don Quixote”, p.370

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• But words are things, and a small drop of ink, Falling like dew, upon a thought, produces That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think.

  Lord Byron

  Inspirational, Life, Fall

  Lord Byron (2013). “Don Juan”, p.109, Simon and Schuster

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• We are the products of editing, rather than of authorship.

  George Wald

  Editing, Atheism, Products

  1975 'The Origin of Optical Activity', in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, vol.69.

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

  Edmund Burke

  Writing, One Direction, Mind

  Edmund Burke (1860). “The Works of Edmund Burke: With a Memoir”, p.505

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• Write to the mind and heart, and let the ear Glean after what it can.

  Philip James Bailey

  Writing, Heart, Mind

  Philip James Bailey (1845). “Festus: A Poem”, p.286

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

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Men, Feelings, Soul

  Henry Ward Beecher (1855). “Star Papers: Or, Experiences of Art and Nature”, p.54, New York : Boston : J.C. Derby ; Phillips, Sampson & Company

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• He who writes prose builds his temple to Fame in rubble; he who writes verses builds it in granite. - Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-Lytton, first Baron Lytton

  Bill Vaughan

  Writing, Firsts, Temples

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• The circumstance which gives authors an advantage above all these great masters, is this, that they can multiply their originals; or rather, can make copies of their works, to what number they please, which shall be as valuable as the originals themselves.

  Joseph Addison

  Numbers, Giving, Advantage

  Joseph Addison, Richard Steele (1854). “The Spectator”, p.44

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• Too indolent to bear the toil of writing; I mean of writing well; I say nothing about quantity.
  [Lat., Piger scribendi ferre laborem;
  Scribendi recte, nam ut multum nil moror.]

  Horace

  Mean, Writing, Bears

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• The lover of letters loves power too.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Letters, Lovers, Power Of Love

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.2489, Delphi Classics

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

  Martial

  Book, Writing, Wish

  Martial (1871). “The Epigrams of Martial”, p.362

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• 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.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Book, Writing, Men

  "The Characters or Manners of the Present Age". Book by Jean de La Bruyère, Nicholas Rowe, Chapter XV, 1688.

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

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Writing, Men, Thinking

  "The Characters or Manners of the Present Age". Book by Jean de La Bruyère, Nicholas Rowe, Ch. I., 1688.

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• Writings survive the years; it is by writings that you know Agamemnon, and those who fought for or against him.
  [Lat., Scripta ferunt annos; scriptis Agamemnona nosti,
  Et quisquis contra vel simul arma tulit.]

  Ovid

  Writing, Years, Agamemnon

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• 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.

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  Thee, Pondering, Wells

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Illustrated)”, p.917, Delphi Classics

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• I didn't really escape that gravity until I moved 300 miles south to go to college at 18, where authorship no longer seemed something liable to induce vengeful punishment.

  David Knopfler

  College, Punishment, Liable

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• 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.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Needs, Priests, Secular

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1870). “The Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.40, Рипол Классик

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• There are three difficulties in authorship; to write any thing worth the publishing — to find honest men to publish it — and to get sensible men to read it.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Writing, Men, Three

  "Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think".

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• There is probably no hell for authors in the next world - they suffer so much from critics and publishers in this.

  Christian Nestell Bovee

  Writing, Rejection, Suffering

  "Intuitions and Summaries of Thought" by Christian Nestell Bovee, Vol. I, (p. 68), 1862.

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• Almost anyone can be an author; the business is to collect money and fame from this state of being.

  A. A. Milne

  Success, Writing, Fame

  A. A. Milne “Not That It Matters”, Lulu.com

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• 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.

  John Dryden

  Men, Thinking, Blood

  John Dryden (1811). “The poetical works of John Dryden, esq: containing original poems, tales, and translations, with notes”, p.436

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• 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.

  George Henry Lewes

  Writing, Desire, Done

  George Henry Lewes (1846). “The Spanish Drama. Lope de Vega and Calderon”, p.89, London, Knight

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• Knowledge is the foundation and source of good writing.
  [Lat., Scibendi recte sapere est et principium et fons.]

  Horace

  Writing, Foundation, Source

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• Let it (what you have written) be kept back until the ninth year.
  [Lat., Nonumque prematur in annum.]

  Horace

  Years, Written

  12 Copy quote