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Quotes by Literary Geniuses: Master Wordsmiths

Quotes by Literary Geniuses: Master Wordsmiths

October 24th, 2017

quotes by literary geniuses
Literary Genius, Virginia Woolf

It is said that it takes 10,000 hours of practice to master a craft. I’m not sure if I am there yet, but I’ve done at least 5,000 hours of writing. I have stared at a blank screen and felt anxiety; I mulled over some minor issue of diction obsessively; I have doubted my work. As a holder of a master’s degree and a writing tutor at the college level, I also am very experienced when it comes to phraseology – I know a good quote about values when I read one. A brilliant turn of phrase is a wonderful thing! So, I believe I can comfortably say that there is such a thing as a literary genius – one who is such a virtuoso at wordplay that they say something very interesting exactly right. The kind of caliber where one thinks: No one could have said that any better if they had a pen, paper, and 48 hours in which to do so. Herein are a dozen or two spectacular quotes by literary geniuses – and it’s probably not too generous to say that these luminaries are masters of their craft. My hat’s off to them!

 

First, a tongue-in-cheek or ironic quote: “A person is a fool to become a writer. His only compensation is absolute freedom. He has no master except his own soul, and that, I am sure, is why he does it.” – Roald Dahl

“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched – they must be felt with the heart.” – Helen Keller

“I exulted in the pure physicality of that ceaseless, ever-moving sport, and when I found myself driving the lane beneath the hot lights amid the pure electric boisterousness of crowds humming and screaming as a backdrop to my passion, my chosen game, this love of my life, I was the happiest boy who ever lived.” ~ Pat Conroy

“Take away the career and the higher education, and maybe what you’re left with is this original Barb, the one who might have ended up working at Wal-Mart for real if her father hadn’t managed to climb out of the mines.” ~ Barbara Ehrenreich

Nothing is worth more than this day. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

 

“An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” – Benjamin Franklin

“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” ~ Anais Nin

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” – Mohandas K. Gandhi

“Since man is not omniscient or infallible, you have to discover what you can claim as knowledge and how to prove the validity of your conclusions.” ~ Ayn Rand

If you can appreciate these quotes by literary geniuses, more quotations by famous authors can be found – free, as always – in The Wisdom Archive, a superb quotations database, a collection of diverse words of wisdom from some of the greatest minds.

The voyage of discovery lies not in finding new landscapes but in having new eyes. ~ Marcel Proust

 

“All the adversity I’ve had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me…You may not realize I when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.” – Walt Disney

“There’s nothing more tragic than a young cynic because then the person has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing.” ~ Maya Angelou

“Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn’t.” ~ Erica Jong

“The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything.” ~ Theodore Roosevelt

“He is a lover of his country who rebukes and does not excuse its sins.” ~ Frederick Douglass

“When we seek to discover the best in others, we somehow bring out the best in ourselves.” – William Arthur Ward

Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. ~ Hermann Hesse

 

“Happiness does not come from doing easy work but from the afterglow of satisfaction that comes after the achievement of a difficult task that demanded our best.” – Theodore Isaac Rubin

“Every country, culture, and people yearn for freedom. But building real, sustainable democracy with rights and protections is complex.” ~ Fareed Zakaria

“Literature is strewn with the wreckage of those who have minded beyond reason the opinion of others.” ~ Virginia Woolf

“Always do sober what you said you’d do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut.” ~ Ernest Hemingway

Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place. ~ Zora Neale Hurston

 

You are reading quotes by literary geniuses, and more quotations by famous authors can be found in The Wisdom Archive

“Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.” ~ William James

“Let America be America again. Let it be the dream it used to be.” ~ Langston Hughes

“Growth in wisdom may be exactly measured by the decrease in bitterness.” ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

“Nobody, not even victors, should forget that when a man hangs from a tree it doesn’t spell justice unless he helped write the law that hanged him.” ~ E. B. White

Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or fertilized by education; they grow there, firm as weeds among rocks. ~ Charlotte Brontë

 

“A little nonsense, now and then, is cherished by the wisest men.” ~ Roald Dahl

“All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure.” ~ Mark Twain

“Those who are the happiest are those who do the most for others.” ~ Booker T. Washington

“To become a man of knowledge was the end result of a process, as opposed to an immediate acquisition through an act of grace or through bestowal by supernatural powers.” ~ Carlos Castaneda

“If you think you’re too small to make a difference, you’ve never been in bed with a mosquito.” ~ Anita Roddick

 

If you enjoyed these quotes by literary geniuses, more quotations by famous authors can be found – free, as always – in The Wisdom Archive, one of the premier compilations of quotations about values, ethics, wisdom, personal growth and self-help in the world.

 

Here is a source for biographies of notable writers, such as Zora Neale Hurston.

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