Authorship Quotes - Page 4

• It is commonly the personal character of a writer which gives him his public significance. It is not imparted by his genius. Napoleon said of Corneille, "Were he living I would make him a king;" but he did not read him. He read Racine, yet he said nothing of the kind of Racine.

  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  Kings, Character, Giving

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• Authors may be divided into falling stars, planets, and fixed stars: the first have a momentary effect; the second have a much longer duration; but the third are unchangeable, possess their own light, and work for all time.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Stars, Fall, Light

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• Ye who write, choose a subject suited to your abilities.
  [Lat., Sumite materiam vestris, qui scribitis, aequam Viribus.]

  Horace

  Writing, Ability, Subjects

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• Those authors who appear sometimes to forget they are writers, and remember they are men, will be our favorites.

  Benjamin Disraeli

  Men, Remember, Sometimes

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• Of all unfortunate men one of the unhappiest is a middling author endowed with too lively a sensibility for criticism.

  Benjamin Disraeli

  Men, Criticism, Lively

  Isaac Disraeli, Benjamin Disraeli (Earl of Beaconsfield) (1861). “Curiosities of literature”, p.81

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• In a sense, photographs are highly literary, and the photographer, like the writer, has to be both a master of craft and a visionary. Patient accumulation of facts and then speculation about their meaning is the nature of authorship in both mediums.

  Peter C Bunnell

  Visionaries, Crafts, Facts

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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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• But, inevitably, as he [Kierkegaard] approaches what we might call his Christocentric climax many readers drop off. Many scholars just leave that part of his authorship alone.

  George Pattison

  Might, Scholar, Reader

  Source: www.3ammagazine.com

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• Of course, if one's reading Kierkegaard for personal interest that's fine - but it's sloppy scholarship just to cherry pick what suits one from a particular author, whether it's Kierkegaard, Heidegger, or whoever. Nevertheless, it does seem to me that even the more religious parts of the authorship can offer significant insights into the meaning of the human condition to those who can't then say that, e.g., they believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God and their personal Saviour.

  George Pattison

  Religious, Jesus, Believe

  "Towards hope". Interview with Richard Marshall, www.3ammagazine.com. July 18, 2014.

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• I think, for me, when I direct my own work it's just an extension of the authorship.

  Adam Rapp

  Thinking, Working It, Extensions

  Source: www.broadwayworld.com

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• Translation is a form of passive aggression. In doing it, a writer chooses to forgo original authorship so as to play havoc with a foreign original in a process of imitation, zigzagging between the foreign and receiving languages but in the last analysis cancelling the first in favor of the second.

  Lawrence Venuti

  Play, Favors, Lasts

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• Authorship is not a trade, it is an inspiration; authorship does not keep an office, its habitation is all out under the sky, and everywhere the winds are blowing and the sun is shining and the creatures of God are free.

  Mark Twain

  Inspiration, Wind, Sky

  Mark Twain (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Mark Twain (Illustrated)”, p.3039, Delphi Classics

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• My teaching, if that is the word you want to use, has no copyright. You are free to reproduce, distribute, interpret, misinterpret, distort, garble, do what you like, even claim authorship, without my consent or the permission of anybody.

  U.G. Krishnamurti

  Teaching, Use, Want

  U. G. Krishnamurti, Rodney Arms (2002). “The Mystique of Enlightenment: The Radical Ideas of U. G. Krishnamurti”, p.2, Sentient Publications

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• Evolution advances, not by a priori design, but by the selection of what works best out of whatever choices offer. We are the products of editing, rather than of authorship.

  George Wald

  Science, Editing, Choices

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• A man of letters is often a man with two natures,--one a book nature, the other a human nature. These often clash sadly.

  Edwin Percy Whipple

  Book, Men, Two

  Edwin Percy Whipple (1871). “Literature and Life”, p.34

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• A writer who attempts to live on the manufacture of his imagination is continually coquetting with starvation.

  Edwin Percy Whipple

  Imagination, Starvation

  Edwin Percy Whipple (1870). “Essays and Reviews”, p.38

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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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• 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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• 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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• Living authors, therefore, are usually, bad companions. If they have not gained character, they seek to do so by methods often ridiculous, always disgusting; and if they have established a character, they are silent for fear of losing by their tongue what they have acquired by their pen--for many authors converse much more foolishly than Goldsmith, who have never written half so well.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Character, Half, Tongue

  Charles Caleb Colton (1823). “Remarks on the Talents of Lord Byron and the Tendencies of Don Juan”, p.158

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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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• For all the practical purposes of life, truth might as well be in a prison as in the folio of a schoolman; and those who release her from her cobwebbed shelf and teach her to live with men have the merit of liberating, if not of discovering, her.

  Charles Caleb Colton

  Men, Purpose, Might

  Charles Caleb Colton (1824). “Lacon, Or, Many Things in a Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think”, p.199

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• There is a natural disposition with us to judge an author's personal character by the character of his works. We find it difficult to understand the common antithesis of a good writer and a bad man.

  Edwin Percy Whipple

  Character, Men, Judging

  Edwin Percy Whipple (1851). “Literature and life, lects”, p.5

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• The familiar writer is apt to be his own satirist. Out of his own mouth is he judged.

  Edwin Percy Whipple

  Mouths, Familiar, Satirist

  Edwin Percy Whipple (1870). “Essays and Reviews”, p.148

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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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