October 31, 2003
The Second Most Self-Indulgent Thing a Person Can Do
Blogging is the second most self-indulgent thing a person can do. Think of Paul Reubens, only in an empty theater.
--Thomas Jay Peckish II
It is not a bad idea to get in the habit of writing down one's thoughts. It saves one having to bother anyone else with them.
--Isabel Colegate
Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards.
--Robert Heinlein (1907 - 1988)
Read over your compositions, and wherever you meet with a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out.
--Samuel Johnson (1709 - 1784), from Boswell's Life of Johnson
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.
--Samuel Johnson (1709 - 1784) (attributed)
Don't think of retiring from the world until the world will be sorry that you retire. I hate a fellow whom pride or cowardice or laziness drives into a corner, and who does nothing when he is there but sit and growl. Let him come out as I do, and bark.
--Samuel Johnson, English author, critic, & lexicographer (1709 - 1784)