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.”
“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.”
Nothing is worth more than this day.
“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.”
“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.”
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.
“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.”
“Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer but wish we didn’t.”
“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.”
“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.
“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.”
“Literature is strewn with the wreckage of those who have minded beyond reason the opinion of others.”
“Always do sober what you said you’d do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut.”
Love makes your soul crawl out from its hiding place.
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.”
“Let America be America again. Let it be the dream it used to be.”
“Growth in wisdom may be exactly measured by the decrease in bitterness.”
“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.”
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.
“A little nonsense, now and then, is cherished by the wisest men.”
“All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence; then success is sure.”
“Those who are the happiest are those who do the most for others.”
“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.”
“If you think you’re too small to make a difference, you’ve never been in bed with a mosquito.”
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.
