A work, however, should be judged by its design and its execution, and not by any preconceived notion of what it ought to be according to the critic, rather than the author. — Isaac D'Israeli Copy Share Image
Bayle, when writing on "Comets," discovered this; for having collected many things applicable to his work, as they stood quoted in some modern writers, when he came to compare them with their originals, he was surprised to find that they were nothing for his purpose! the originals conveyed a quite contrary sense to that of the pretended quoters, who often,… — Isaac D'Israeli Copy Share
Those who do not read criticism will rarely merit to be criticised. — Isaac D'Israeli Copy Share Image
It is generally supposed that where there is no QUOTATION, there will be found most originality; and as people like to lay out their money according to their notions, our writers usually furnish their pages rapidly with the productions of their own soil: they run up a quickset hedge, or plant a poplar, and get trees and hedges of this… — Isaac D'Israeli Copy Share
The ancients, who in these matters were not perhaps such blockheads as some may conceive, considered poetical quotation as one of the requisite ornaments… — Isaac D'Israeli Copy Share Image
Style! style! why, all writers will tell you that it is the very thing which can least of all be changed. A man's style… — Isaac D'Israeli Copy Share Image
There is an art of reading, an art of thinking, and an art of writing. — Isaac D'Israeli Copy Share Image
The art of quotation requires more delicacy in the practice than those conceive who can see nothing more in a quotation than an extract. — Isaac D'Israeli Copy Share Image
Enthusiasm is that secret and harmonious spirit which hovers over the production of genius, throwing the reader of a book, or the spectator of… — Isaac D'Israeli Copy Share Image
Theories of genius are the peculiar constructions of our own philosophical times; ages of genius had passed away, and they left no other record… — Isaac D'Israeli Copy Share Image
