Authorship Quotes - Page 3

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

  Joseph Joubert

  Exercise, Giving, Brain

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

  Joseph Joubert

  Energy, Talent, Muscles

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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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• Nature's chief masterpiece is writing well.

  John Sheffield, 1st Duke of Buckingham and Normanby

  Writing, Chiefs, Masterpiece

  "Essay on Poetry" by John Sheffield,

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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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• Each religion is a brave guess at the authorship of Hamlet. Yet, as far as the play goes, does it make any difference whether Shakespeare or Bacon wrote it? Would it make any difference to the actors if their parts happened out of nothingness, if they found themselves acting on the stage because of some gross and unpardonable accident? Would it make any difference if the playwright gave them the lines or whether they composed them themselves, so long as the lines were properly spoken? Would it make any difference to the characters if 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' was really a dream?

  Lewis Mumford

  God, Dream, Character

  "My Works and Days". Book by Lewis Mumford. Chapter 2, 1979.

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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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• 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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• 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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• Professed authors who overestimate their vocation are too full of themselves to be agreeable companions. The demands of their egotism are inveterate. They seem to be incapable of that abandon which is the requisite condition of social pleasure; and bent upon winning a tribute of admiration, or some hint which they can turn to the account of pen-craft, there is seldom in their company any of the delightful unconsciousness which harmonizes a circle.

  Henry Theodore Tuckerman

  Winning, Circles, Hints

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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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• 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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• 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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• 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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• Most people believe that the Creator of the universe wrote (or dictated) one of their books. Unfortunately, there are many books that pretend to divine authorship, and each makes incompatible claims about how we all must live.

  Sam Harris

  Believe, Book, People

  "Science Must Destroy Religion" by Sam Harris, www.huffingtonpost.com. January 2, 2006.

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• Nature I believe in. True art aims to, represent men and women, not as my little self would have them, but as they appear. My heroes and heroines I want not extreme types, all good or all bad; but human, mortal--partly good, partly bad. Realism I need. Pure mental abstractions have no significance for me.

  Ouida

  Art, Hero, Believe

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• Our favorites are few; since only what rises from the heart reaches it, being caught and carried on the tongues of men wheresoever love and letters journey.

  Amos Bronson Alcott

  Book, Heart, Journey

  Amos Bronson Alcott (1868). “Tablets”

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