Isaac D'Israeli on writing

The wisdom of the wise and the experience of the ages are perpetuated by quotations.

The wisdom of the wise, and the experience of ages, may be preserved by quotations.

It is a wretched taste to be gratified with mediocrity when the excellent lies before us.

To write a good love letter, you ought to begin without knowing what you mean to say and to finish without knowing what you have written.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau1712–1778

• Love

Don’t use words too big for the subject. Don’t say ‘infinitely’ when you mean ‘very’; otherwise you’ll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.

C. S. Lewis1898–1963

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.

Benjamin Franklin1706–1790

• Reading