author (n.)

author (v.)

And choose an author as you choose a friend.

Earl Of Roscommon (1633-1684): Essay on Translated Verse. Line 96.

My friend was of opinion that when a man of rank appeared in that character [as an author], he deserved to have his merits handsomely allowed.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784): Life of Johnson (Boswell). Vol. viii. Chap. iii. 1781.

No author ever spar'd a brother.

John Gay (1688-1732): Fables. The Elephant and the Bookseller.

The Devil himself, which is the author of confusion and lies.

Robert Burton (1576-1640): Anatomy of Melancholy. Part iii. Sect. 4, Memb. 1, Subsect. 3.

For where is any author in the world

Teaches such beauty as a woman's eye?

Learning is but an adjunct to ourself.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Love's Labour's Lost. Act iv. Sc. 3.

The author who speaks about his own books is almost as bad as a mother who talks about her own children.

Benjamin Disraeli (Earl Beaconsfield) (1805-1881): Speech, Nov. 19, 1870.

Poets are sultans, if they had their will;

For every author would his brother kill.

Orrery: Prologues (according to Johnson).