You need a good editor because every writer thinks he can write a War …

Samuel Johnson
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You need a good editor because every writer thinks he can write a War and Peace, but by the time he gets it on paper, it's not War and Peace anymore; it's comic-book stuff. 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.
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Those who attain any excellence, commonly spend life in one pursuit; for excellence is not often gained upon easier terms. ✨ Samuel Johnson (1810). The works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.: With An essay o … ▶
A man ought to read just as inclination leads him, for what he reads as a task will do him little good. ✨ Quoted in James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (entry for 14 July 1763)
Few enterprises of great labor or hazard would be undertaken if we had not the power of magnifying the advantages we expect from them.
The natural flights of the human mind are not from pleasure to pleasure, but from hope to hope. ✨ Samuel Johnson (1820). The Rambler, p.8
As any action or posture, long continued, will distort and disfigure the limbs, so the mind likewise is crippled and contracted by perpetual application to the same set of ideas. ✨ Samuel Johnson (17 … ▶

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