The reason why many people are so fond of using superlatives, is, they are so positive that the poor positive is not half positive enough for them. – Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers

An original writer is not one who imitates nobody, but one whom nobody can imitate. РFran̤ois-Ren̩ de Chateaubriand, Le G̩nie du Christianisme, 1802

The writer writes in order to teach himself, to understand himself, to satisfy himself; the publishing of his ideas, though it brings gratification, is a curious anticlimax. – Alfred Kazin, Think, February 1963