Language pedants hew to an oral tradition of shibboleths that have no basis in logic or style, that have been defied by great writers for centuries, and that have been disavowed by every thoughtful usage manual.Steven Pinker
The writer may very well serve a movement of history as its mouthpiece, but he cannot of course create it.Karl Marx
It is a fact often observed, that men have written good verses under the inspiration of passion, who cannot write well under other circumstances.Ralph Waldo Emerson
One must be an inventor to read well. There is then creative reading as well as creative writing.Ralph Waldo Emerson
Every sentence spoken by Napoleon, and every line of his writing, deserves reading, as it is the sense of France.Ralph Waldo Emerson
Nothing goes by luck in composition. It allows of no tricks. The best you can write will be the best you are.Henry David Thoreau
I put a piece of paper under my pillow, and when I could not sleep I wrote in the dark.Henry David Thoreau
If you can speak what you will never hear, if you can write what you will never read, you have done rare things.Henry David Thoreau
