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Writing Quotes by Samuel Johnson
- You need a good editor because every writer thinks he can write a War and Peace, but by the time he gets it on paper,…
- Abuse is often of service. There is nothing so dangerous to an author as silence.
- It is advantageous to an author that his book should be attacked as well as praised. Fame is a shuttlecock. If it be struck at…
- ...it will not always happen that the success of a poet is proportionate to his labor.
- Tediousness is the most fatal of all faults.
- Composition is for the most part an effort of slow diligence and steady perseverance, to which the mind is dragged by necessity or resolution, and…
- Women can spin very well, but they cannot write a good book of cookery.
- To fix the thoughts by writing, and subject them to frequent examinations and reviews, is the best method of enabling the mind to detect its…
- To exact of every man who writes that he should say something new, would be to reduce authors to a small number; to oblige the…
- The liberty of the press is a blessing when we are inclined to write against others, and a calamity when we find ourselves overborne by…
- You may abuse a tragedy, though you cannot write one. You may scold a carpenter who has made you a bad table, though you cannot…
- I fancy mankind may come, in time, to write all aphoristically, except in narrative; grow weary of preparation, and connection, and illustration, and all those…
- Authors and lovers always suffer some infatuation, from which only absence can set them free.
- It is indeed certain, that whoever attempts any common topick, will find unexpected coincidences of his thoughts with those of other writers; nor can the…
- Every man speaks and writes with intent to be understood; and it can seldom happen but he that understands himself might convey his notions to…
- While an author is yet living, we estimate his powers by his worst performance; and when he is dead, we rate him by his best.
- An author places himself uncalled before the tribunal of criticism and solicits fame at the hazard of disgrace.
- As the faculty of writing has chiefly been a masculine endowment, the reproach of making the world miserable has always been thrown upon the women.
- No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money.
- The greatest part of a writer's time is spent in reading in order to write. A man will turn over half a library to make…
More Writing Quotes
- Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it. — Hannah Arendt
- I began writing at the age of 5, but there was a dark period between the ages of 8 and 16 when… — Margaret Atwood
- I started out in life as a poet; I was only writing poetry all through my 20s. It wasn't until I was… — Paul Auster
- I grew up in a working-class family, so I guess you could say I write from what I know. — Andrea Arnold
- I write from my soul. This is the reason that critics don't hurt me, because it is me. If it was not… — Paulo Coelho
- Writing makes you feel that there is a reason to go on living. If I couldn't write, I would stop breathing. — Paul Auster
- In every song I write, whether it's a love song or a political song or a song about family, the one thing… — Billie Joe Armstrong
- Individual science fiction stories may seem as trivial as ever to the blinder critics and philosophers of today - but the core… — Isaac Asimov