Best Great Author Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“Good authors worry about genres great authors don't.”

Philosophy Great Author Mg Hardie Frank Gaspar Good Author

“Writing is a difficult trade which must be learned slowly by reading great authors; by trying at the outset to imitate them; by daring then to be original; by destroying one's first productions.”

Writing Trying Firsts Book Reading Difficult Originals Trade Productions Destroying Daring Books And Reading Great Author

Author:Andre Maurois

“The faults of great authors are generally excellences carried to an excess.”

Writing Faults Excellence Excess Great Author

Book:The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge: Poetry, Plays, Literary Essays, Lectures, Autobiography and Letters (Classic Illustrated Edition): The Entire Opus of the English poet, literary critic and philosopher, including The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Kubla Khan, Christabel, Lyrical Ballads, Conversation Poems and Biographia Literaria

Source: The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor Coleridge: Poetry, Plays, Literary Essays, Lectures, Autobiography and Letters (Classic Illustrated Edition): The Entire Opus of the English poet, literary critic and philosopher, including The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Kubla Khan, Christabel, Lyrical Ballads, Conversation Poems and Biographia Literaria

“The only people I have ever seen paint successfully, consistently, with great authority, unselfconsciously and without fear of failing were about four years old.”

People Years Four Failing Authority Paint Four Years Consistently Fear Of Failing Great Author

Author:Brian Johnson

“The custom of the Church has very great authority and ought to be jealously observed in all things.”

Church Ought Authority All Things Customs Catholicism Jealously Great Author

Book:The Summa Theologica: Complete Edition

Source: The Summa Theologica: Complete Edition

“Great authors are admirable in this respect: in every generation they make for disagreement. Through them we become aware of our differences.”

Literature Differences Generations Respect Disagreement Admirable Great Author

Book:Pretexts: Reflections on Literature and Morality

Source: Pretexts: Reflections on Literature and Morality

“An evil nature wielding great authority brings misfortune upon the community.”

Evil Community Authority Misfortunes Great Author

Author:Aeschines

“One of my ambitions has been to go back to what those great authors were doing then ... to bridge that sensibility of old Victorian Gothic tales and reconstruct them in a modern way.”

Way Has Beens Modern Ambition Tales Bridges Sensibility Gothic My Ambition Victorian Great Author

Author:Carlos Ruiz Zafon

“You can always speak with great authority on how well you played today, but never on how you'll play tomorrow.”

Wells Play Today Speak Tomorrow Authority Golf Great Author

Author:Gary Player

“A man who has any relish for fine writing either discovers new beauties or receives stronger impressions from the masterly strokes of a great author every time he peruses him; besides that he naturally wears himself into the same manner of speaking and thinking.”

Thinking Men Writing Reading Fine Stronger Impression Strokes Relish Great Author

Book:The British Essayists: Containing the Spectator, with Notes and General Index, and the Tatler and Guardian, with Notes and General Index

Source: The British Essayists: Containing the Spectator, with Notes and General Index, and the Tatler and Guardian, with Notes and General Index

“Well, great authors are great people - but I believe that they are best seen at a distance.”

People Believe Wells I Believe Distance Great People Great Author

Author:Mary Russell Mitford

“Great authors, when they write about causes, adduce not only those they think are true but also those they do not believe in, provided they have some originality and beauty. They speak truly and usefully enough if they speak ingeniously.”

Ifs Thinking Writing Believe Enough Truth Speak Causes Beauty Originality Causality Great Author

Book:The Complete Essays of Montaigne

Source: The Complete Essays of Montaigne

“There's as much great authorship in the filmmaker community as in the literary community, and I'd love to welcome more filmmakers into the fold.”

Community Welcome Filmmaker Folds Authorship Great Author

Author:Nina Jacobson

“The meanest authors have at least this similarity with the great author of heaven and earth, that they usually say after a completed day of work: "And behold, what he had done was good.”

Done Earth Heaven Creativity Similarity Heaven And Earth Great Author

Author:Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel

“Many great authors of the 19th century wrote under conditions of strict censorship. The great thing about the art of writing a novel, is that you can write about anything. All you have to say is that it's fiction.”

Writing Art Fiction Novel Conditions Century Great Things Censorship Strict 19th Century Art Of Writing Great Author

Author:Orhan Pamuk

“To state a lie firmly, categorically and with great authority, undeterred by the fact that all concerned know it to be a lie, is one of the principal activities defined by the term practising law.”

Knows States Facts Law Lying Term Activity Authority Concerned Defined Principal Great Author

Author:Stephen Vizinczey

“A great book should leave you with many experiences.”

Should Book Reading Books Book Reading Great Book Books And Reading Writers Reading Great Reading Great Author Inspirational Reading Bibliophiles Inspiring Book Reading Inspirational Pleasure Of Reading Inspiring Reading Reading For Pleasure

Book:Conversations with William Styron

Source: Conversations with William Styron

“You should not put too much trust in any unproved conjecture, even if it has been propounded by a great authority, even if it has been propounded by yourself. You should try to prove it or disprove it.”

Ifs Should Trying Has Beens Too Much Prove Authority Prove It Conjecture Great Author

Author:George Polya

“Mann and Joyce are very different, and yet their fiction often appeals to the same people: Harry Levin taught a famous course on Joyce, Proust, and Mann, and Joseph Campbell singled out Joyce and Mann as special favorites. To see them as offering "possibilities for living", as I do, isn't to identify any distinctive commonality. After all, many great authors would fall under that rubric.”

People Different Fall Courses Fiction Special Possibility Taught Appeals Offering Distinctive Joyce Commonality Proust Great Author Rubrics

Author:Philip Kitcher

“Over the years, my books have been given a lot more credence than they should. I don't think people should take them quite that seriously. They're not a theological treatise; they were never intended to be. I find myself in awkward situations sometimes because people think I'm some great authority on spiritual warfare, but I'm not. I never have been.”

People Thinking Book Sometimes Spiritual Situation Authority Awkward Theological Spiritual Warfare Great Author

Author:Dannah Gresh

“All great authors are seers.”

Seers Great Author

Book:The Principles of Success in Literature

Source: The Principles of Success in Literature

“Action is greater than writing. A good man is a nobler object of contemplation than a great author. There are but two things worth living for: to do what is worthy of being written; and to write what is worthy of being read.”

Men Writing Two Action Economy Greater Written Objects Worthy Contemplation Two Things Good Man Worth Living Great Author

Author:Ross Perot

“Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words.”

Writing Easy Crosses Confusing Writing Advice Good Writers Great Writers Great Writing Writing From Famous Authors Wrong Words Great Author

Author:Mark Twain

“I was sorry to have my name mentioned as one of the great authors, because they have a sad habit of dying off. Chaucer is dead, Spencer is dead, so is Milton, so is Shakespeare, and I’m not feeling so well myself.”

Wells Feelings Names Dying Greatness Habit Sorry Milton Great Author Chaucer

Author:Mark Twain

“No Man has a more perfect reliance on the all-wise and powerful dispensations of the Supreme Being than I have, nor thinks his aid more necessary...The man must be bad indeed who can look upon the events of the American Revolution without feeling the warmest gratitude towards the great Author of the Universe whose divine interposition was so frequently manifested in our behalf....In war He directed the sword, and in peace, He has ruled in our councils.”

Thinking Men Looks War Feelings Universe Perfect Powerful Wise Events Divine Revolution Gratitude Aids Supreme Behalf Council Reliance American Revolution Supreme Being Great Author

Author:George Washington

“The great authors were great readers, and one way to understand them is to read the books they read.”

Way Book Reader One Way Great Author

Book:How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading

Source: How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading

“I can’t write five words but that I change seven.”

Writing I Can Five Seven Great Writers Writers And Writing Revision Writing By Writers Great Writing Rewriting Art Of Writing Writing From Famous Authors Great Author

Book:Not Much Fun: The Lost Poems of Dorothy Parker

Source: Not Much Fun: The Lost Poems of Dorothy Parker

“Easter is reflecting upon suffering for one thing, but it also reflects upon Jesus and his non-compliance in the face of great authority where he holds to his truth - so there's two stories there.”

Two Stories Faces Suffering Jesus One Thing Authority Easter Reflecting Compliance Easter Season Easter Day Great Author Reflecting Upon

Author:Michael Leunig

“Learn to love humility, for it will cover all your sins. All sins are repulsive before God, but the most repulsive of all is pride of the heart. Do not consider yourself learned and wise; otherwise, all your efforts will be destroyed, and your boat will reach the harbor empty. If you have great authority, do not threaten anyone with death. Know that, according to nature, you too are susceptible to death, and that every soul sheds its body as its final garment.”

Ifs Knows Heart Soul God Body Sin Effort Knowledge Wise Humility Pride Authority Empty Finals Boat Destroyed Shed Harbors Garments Susceptible Great Author

Author:Anthony of Padua

“Old age, especially an honored old age, has so great authority, that this is of more value than all the pleasures of youth.”

Age Time Values Pleasure Youth Authority Aging Old Age Honored Great Author

Book:Three Books of Offices; Or, Moral Duties: Also His Cato Major, an Essay on Old Age; Laelius, an Essay on Friendship; Paradoxes; Scipio's Dream; and Letter to Quintus on the Duties of a Magistrate. Literally Translated, with Notes, Designed to Exhibit a Comparative View of the Opinions of Cicero, and Those of Modern Moralists and Ethical Philosophers

Source: Three Books of Offices; Or, Moral Duties: Also His Cato Major, an Essay on Old Age; Laelius, an Essay on Friendship; Paradoxes; Scipio's Dream; and Letter to Quintus on the Duties of a Magistrate. Literally Translated, with Notes, Designed to Exhibit a Comparative View of the Opinions of Cicero, and Those of Modern Moralists and Ethical Philosophers

“There can be no real conflict between the two Books of the Great Author. Both are revelations made by Him to man,-the earlier telling of God-made harmonies coming up from the deep past, and rising to their height when man appeared, the later teaching man's relations to his Maker, and speaking of loftier harmonies in the eternal future.”