Man, proud man! 

Dressed in a little brief authority: 
Most ignorant of what he’s most assur’d. 
His glassy essence—­like an angry ape
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven,
As make the angels weep. 

          
                          —­Shakespeare.

Though authority be a stubborn bear, yet he is oft led by the nose with gold.—­Shakespeare.

Authors.—­Choose an author as you choose a friend.—­Earl of Roscommon.

The motives and purposes of authors are not always so pure and high, as, in the enthusiasm of youth, we sometimes imagine.  To many the trumpet of fame is nothing but a tin horn to call them home, like laborers from the field, at dinner-time, and they think themselves lucky to get the dinner.—­Longfellow.

It is a doubt whether mankind are most indebted to those who, like Bacon and Butler, dig the gold from the mine of literature, or to those who, like Paley, purify it, stamp it, fix its real value, and give it currency and utility.—­Colton.

Twenty to one offend more in writing too much than too little.—­Roger Ascham.

He who proposes to be an author should first be a student.—­Dryden.

Nothing is so beneficial to a young author as the advice of a man whose judgment stands constitutionally at the freezing-point.—­Douglas Jerrold.

No fathers or mothers think their own children ugly; and this self-deceit is yet stronger with respect to the offspring of the mind.—­Cervantes.

There are three difficulties in authorship—­to write anything worth the publishing, to find honest men to publish it, and to get sensible men to read it.—­Colton.

An author!  ’Tis a venerable name! 
How few deserve it, and what numbers claim! 
Unblest with sense above their peers refin’d,
Who shall stand up, dictators to mankind? 
Nay, who dare shine, if not in virtue’s cause? 
That sole proprietor of just applause. 

          
                          —­Young.

Never write on a subject without having first read yourself full on it; and never read on a subject till you have thought yourself hungry on it.—­Richter.

How many great ones may remember’d be,
Which in their days most famously did flourish,
Of whom no word we hear, nor sign now see,
But as things wip’d out with a sponge do perish,
Because the living cared not to cherish
No gentle wits, through pride or covetize,
Which might their names for ever memorize! 

          
                          —­Spenser.

The two most engaging powers of an author are to make new things familiar, and familiar things new.—­Thackeray.

To write well is to think well, to feel well, and to render well; it is to possess at once intellect, soul and taste.—­Buffon.