Nothing is more durable than the dynasty of Doubt; for he reigns in the hearts of all his people, but gives satisfaction to none of them, and yet he is the only despot who can never die, while any of his subjects live.
Charles Caleb ColtonRead
There are three difficulties in authorship; to write any thing worth the publishing — to find honest men to publish it — and to get sensible men to read it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Authorship involves multiple challenges, including writing valuable content, finding trustworthy publishers, and capturing the attention of discerning readers.
In this quote, Charles Caleb Colton highlights the complex nature of authorship, emphasizing that creating a significant piece of writing is only the first hurdle. The subsequent challenges lie in locating honest and reliable publishers who will support the work and in ensuring that it reaches an audience of discerning individuals who can appreciate its value. This illustrates the multifaceted obstacles that authors face in the literary world.
Themes
AuthorshipWritingPublishingReadersLiterature
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a speech at a writers' workshop to inspire aspiring authors about the realities of publishing.
More from Charles Caleb Colton
All quotes →It is astonishing how much more people are interested in lengthening life than improving it.
Charles Caleb ColtonRead
The benevolent have the advantage of the envious, even in this present life; for the envious man is tormented not only by all the ill that befalls himself, but by all the good that happens to another; whereas the benevolent man is the better prepared to bear his own calamities unruffled, from the complacency and serenity he has secured from contemplating the prosperity of all around him.
Charles Caleb ColtonRead
Happiness, that grand mistress of the ceremonies in the dance of life, impels us through all its mazes and meanderings, but leads none of us by the same route.
Charles Caleb ColtonRead
Our minds are as different as our faces. We are all traveling to one destination: happiness, but few are going by the same road.
Charles Caleb ColtonRead
Moderation is the inseparable companion of wisdom, but with it genius has not even a nodding acquaintance.
Charles Caleb ColtonRead
Similar quotes
Nobody ever asks me why my characters don't text each other. Besides, as soon as you put something 'electronic' in a book, it's already out of date by the time it's published: everything will have changed. Human emotion, on the other hand, will never change.
Judy BlumeRead
I'm not sure that it's possible to write a novel about people who don't transgress or stumble, people who don't surprise themselves with the things they do, people who can explain all their actions with perfect logical consistency. At least it's not possible for me to write that sort of novel.
Tom PerrottaRead
Literature sucks you into another psyche. So the creation of empathy necessarily influences how you'll behave to other people.
Barbara KingsolverRead
Fiction and nonfiction are not so easily divided. Fiction may not be real, but it's true; it goes beyond the garland of facts to get to emotional and psychological truths.
Yann MartelRead
Literature is that which he can not read without pain, without choking on truth.
Roland BarthesRead
Sometimes I sensed that the books I read in rapid succession had set up some sort of murmur among themselves, transforming my head into an orchestra pit where different musical instruments sounded out, and I would realize that I could endure this life because of these musicales going on in my head.
Orhan PamukRead