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Quotes about writing

377 quotes from 206 people

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The man who reads nothing at all is better educated than the man who reads nothing but newspapers.
Thomas Jefferson1743–1826
- Journalism
- Reading
Our liberty depends on the freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.
Thomas Jefferson1743–1826Letter to Dr. James Currie (28 January 1786) Lipscomb & Bergh 18:ii
- Journalism
No government ought to be without censors; and where the press is free no one ever will.
Thomas Jefferson1743–1826Letter to George Washington (9 September 1792)
- Government
- Journalism
The man who never looks into a newspaper is better informed than he who reads them; inasmuch as he who knows nothing is nearer to truth than he whose mind is filled with falsehoods & errors.
Thomas Jefferson1743–1826Letter to John Norvell (11 June 1807)
- Journalism
- Truth & Lies
Since truth and reason have maintained their ground against false opinions in league with false facts, the press, confined to truth, needs no other legal restraint; the public judgment will correct false reasoning and opinions on a full hearing of all parties.
Thomas Jefferson1743–1826Jefferson’s Second Inaugural Address (1805)
If one morning I walked on top of the water across the Potomac River, the headline that afternoon would read: ‘President Can’t Swim.’
Lyndon B. Johnson1908–1973Often credited to Margaret Thatcher
- Clever Jabs
- Journalism
No man but a blockhead ever wrote, except for money.
Samuel Johnson1709–1784Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol III (5 April 1776) p. 302
No place affords a more striking conviction of the vanity of human hopes than a public library.
Samuel Johnson1709–1784The Rambler (1750–1752), No. 106 (23 March 1751)
- Fame
A man may write at any time, if he will set himself doggedly.
Samuel Johnson1709–1784The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides (1785) (16 August 1773)
Tom Birch is as brisk as a bee in conversation; but no sooner does he take a pen in his hand than it becomes a torpedo to him, and benumbs all his faculties.
Samuel Johnson1709–1784Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol I (1743)
- Clever Jabs
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 arts by which a big book is made.
Samuel Johnson1709–1784The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides (1785) (16 August 1773)
I would rather be attacked than unnoticed. For the worst thing you can do to an author is to be silent as to his works.
Samuel Johnson1709–1784Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol III (26 March 1779)
- Fame
In this work are exhibited, in a very high degree, the two most engaging powers of an author. New things are made familiar, and familiar things are made new.
Samuel Johnson1709–1784Lives of the English Poets (1779–81), “Pope”, on The Rape of the Lock
Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison.
Samuel Johnson1709–1784Lives of the English Poets (1779–81)
LEXICOGRAPHER — A writer of dictionaries, a harmless drudge.
Samuel Johnson1709–1784A Dictionary of the English Language (1755)
- Comedy