Authorship Quotes - Page 4

• Subtract from many modern poets all that may be found in Shakespeare, and trash will remain.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  May, Poet, Modern

  Charles Caleb Colton (1821). “Lacon: or, Many things in few words”, p.214

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• That an author's work is the mirror of his mind is a position that has led to very false conclusions. If Satan himself were to write a book it would be in praise of virtue, because the good would purchase it for use, and the bad for ostentation.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Book, Writing, Mirrors

  Charles Caleb Colton (1832). “Lacon: Or Many Things in Few Words, Addressed to Those who Think”, p.141

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• That author, however, who has thought more than he has read, read more than he has written, and written more than he has published, if he does not command success, has at least deserved it.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Doe, Command, Written

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.11

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• There are both dull correctness and piquant carelessness; it is needless to say which will command the most readers and have the most influence.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Dull, Influence, Command

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• For popular purposes, at least, the aim of literary artists should be similar to that of Rubens in his landscapes, of which, without neglecting the minor traits or finishing, he was chiefly solicitous to present the leading effect, or what we may call the inspiration.

  William Benton Clulow

  Inspiration, Artist, Finishing

  William Benton Clulow (1843). “Aphorisms and Reflections: A Miscellany of Thought and Opinion”, p.47

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• if have got my spindle and my distaff ready--my pen and mind--never doubting for an instant that God will send me flax.

  J. G. Holland

  Doubt, Mind, Flax

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• Who left nothing of authorship untouched, and touched nothing which he did not adorn.
  [Lat., Qui nullum fere scribendi genus non tetigit; nullum quod tetigit non ornavit.]

  Samuel Johnson

  Touched, Left

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• As in digging for precious metals in the mines, much earthy rubbish has first to be troublesomely handled and thrown out; so, in digging in one's soul for the fine gold of genius, much dullness and common-place is first brought to light.

  Herman Melville

  Creativity, Light, Soul

  Herman Melville (2016). “Pierre; or The Ambiguities”, p.327, Herman Melville

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• The faults of a brilliant writer are never dangerous on the long run; a thousand people read his work who would read no other; inquiry is directed to each of his doctrines; it is soon discovered what is sound and what is false; the sound become maxims, and the false beacons.

  Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton

  Running, Long, People

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• If you're fortunate enough with your history, like with Men in the Cities, your work becomes so absorbed in culture that the authorship of it doesn't exist anymore.

  Robert Longo

  Men, Cities, Culture

  Interview with Keanu Reeves, www.interviewmagazine.com. April 4, 2014.

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• The only times we are consciously aware of the authorship of a photograph, I would argue, are when we contemplate the photographs we ourselves have taken (or those of friends and family) or when we go deliberately to the photographers monograph or exhibition. The signed image - the appropriated, the owned image - is by far the rarest in this pullulating world of pictures.

  William Boyd

  Taken, Family And Friends, World

  William Boyd (2008). “Bamboo”, p.350, A&C Black

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• But every fool describes, in these bright days, His wondrous journey to some foreign court, And spawns his quarto, and demands your praise,-- Death to his publisher, to him 'tis sport.

  Lord Byron

  Sports, Journey, Demand

  Lord Byron (2013). “Don Juan”, p.147, Simon and Schuster

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• And hold up to the sun my little taper.

  Lord Byron

  Littles, Sun

  Lord Byron (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Lord Byron (Illustrated)”, p.2208, Delphi Classics

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• I don't particularly care about photographic authorship. Whether an astronaut who doesn't even have a viewfinder makes an image, a robotic camera, a military photographer, or Mike Light really doesn't matter. What matters is the context of the final photograph and the meaning it generates within that context.

  Michael Light

  Military, What Matters, Light

  "100 Suns and the Nuclear Sublime". Interview with Robert Hirsch, lightresearch.net. July / August 2005.

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• From the moment one sets up for an author, one must be treated as ceremoniously, that is as unfaithfully, "as a king's favorite or a king.

  Alexander Pope

  Kings, Moments, Treated

  Alexander Pope (1847). “The Works of Alexander Pope, Esq: With Notes and Illustrations”, p.18

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• The little mind who loves itself, will wr'te and think with the vulgar; but the great mind will be bravely eccentric, and scorn the beaten road, from universal benevolence.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Thinking, Mind, Eccentric

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• Whatever be the motives which induce men to write,--whether avarice or fame,--the country becomes more wise and happy in which they most serve for instructors.

  Oliver Goldsmith

  Wise, Country, Writing

  Oliver Goldsmith, David Masson (1869). “The Miscellaneous Works of Oliver Goldsmith”, p.210

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• Sallust is indisputably one of the best historians among the Romans, both for the purity of his language and the elegance of his style.

  Edmund Burke

  Style, Language, Purity

  Edmund Burke, Arthur P.I. Samuels (2014). “The Early Life Correspondence and Writings of The Rt. Hon. Edmund Burke”, p.129, CUP Archive

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• Yes, I learned long ago that the only satisfaction of authorship lies in finding the very few who understand what we mean. As for outside rewards, there is not one that I have ever discovered.

  Ellen Glasgow

  Lying, Mean, Long Ago

  Ellen Anderson Gholson Glasgow (1958). “Letters of Ellen Glasgow”

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• It was among the ruins of the capitol that I first conceived the idea of a work which has amused and exercised nearly twenty years of my life.

  Edward Gibbon

  Years, Ideas, Twenties

  Edward Gibbon (1826). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.433

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• Strength is not energy; some authors have more muscles than talent.

  Joseph Joubert

  Energy, Talent, Muscles

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• Young authors give their brains much exercise and little food.

  Joseph Joubert

  Exercise, Giving, Brain

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• Those authors into whose hands nature has placed a magic wand, with which they no sooner touch us than we forget the unhappiness in life, than the darkness leaves our soul, and we are reconciled to existence, should be placed among the benefactors of the human race.

  Denis Diderot

  Race, Hands, Soul

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• Twenty to one offend more in writing too much than too little.

  Roger Ascham

  Writing, Twenties, Littles

  Roger Ascham, James Upton, Thomas Master, Sir Henry Savile (1711). “The Schoolmaster: Or, A Plain and Perfect Way of Teaching Children to Underftand, Write, and Speak the Latin Tongue”, p.136

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• It is in vain a daring author thinks of attaining to the heights of Parnassus if he does not feel the secret influence of heaven and if his natal star has not formed him to be a poet.

  Nicolas Boileau-Despreaux

  Stars, Thinking, Heaven

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