While an author is yet living, we estimate his powers by his worst performance; and when he is dead, we rate him by his best.

By writing, you learn to write.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

Tediousness is the most fatal of all faults.

...it will not always happen that the success of a poet is proportionate to his labor.

You need a good editor because every writer thinks he can write a War and Peace, but by the time he gets it on paper, it's not War and Peace anymore; it's comic-book stuff. Your manuscript is both good and original. But the part that is good is not original, and the part that is original is not good.

You may abuse a tragedy, though you cannot write one. You may scold a carpenter who has made you a bad table, though you cannot make a table. It is not your trade to make tables.

To fix the thoughts by writing, and subject them to frequent examinations and reviews, is the best method of enabling the mind to detect its own sophisms, and keep it on guard against the fallacies which it practices on others