Books Quote by Edward Gibbon

“Better that the book should be not quite so good, and the writer better, and not himself a ridiculous contrast to all he has…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The greatness of a writer has nothing to do with subject matter itself, only with how much the subject matter touches the author.”

— Boris Pasternak

“Shame on the person who judges a Book by its cover without first reading the content: For you are not competent enough to perceive…

— Shenica Coleman

The novelist must be his own most harsh critic and also his own most loving admirer and about both he must say nothing.

— Angus Wilson

That author, however, who has thought more than he has read, read more than he has written, and written more than he has published,…

— Charles Caleb Colton

Every author in some way portrays himself in his works, even if it be against his will.

— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“No man ought certainly to be a judge in his own cause, or in any cause in respect to which he has the least…

— Alexander Hamilton

An author who sets his reader on sounding the depths of his own thoughts serves him best.

— Amos Bronson Alcott

“In neither taste nor precision is any man's practice a court of last appeal, for writers all, both great and small, are habitual sinners…

— Ambrose Bierce

“A real and admirable writer is the one who can write good books but can take criticisms better.”

— Nicholaa Spencer

We owe few of the rules of writing to the acuteness of critics, who have generally no other merit than that, having read the…

— Samuel Johnson

The novelist must look on humanity without partiality or prejudice. His sympathy, like that of the historian, must be unbounded, and untainted by sect…

— Goldwin Smith