“And perhaps there is no advice to give a writer more important than this: — Never write anything that does not give you great pleasure.”
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Joseph Joubert253
French moralist and essayist 1754–1824Related quotes
“A fop sometimes gives important advice.”
Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux (1636–1711) French poet and critic
Un fat quelquefois ouvre un avis important.
Canto IV, l. 50
The Art of Poetry (1674)
“I wish to God that you had as much pleasure in following my advice, as I have in giving it to you.”
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773) British statesman and man of letters
5 February 1750
Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman (1774)
“To profit from good advice requires more wisdom than to give it.”
Wilson Mizner (1876–1933) American writer
Elmore Leonard (1925–2013) American novelist and screenwriter
Source: Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules of Writing
William S. Burroughs (1914–1997) American novelist, short story writer, essayist, painter, and spoken word performer
On drug dealing, quoted in The Daily Telegraph (1964)
“Does that remind you of anything? No? Give up?”
Paul DiLascia (1959–2008) American software developer
1993/6
Misc
“There is no sweeter pleasure than to surprise a man by giving him more than he hopes for.”
Charles Baudelaire book Le Spleen de Paris
Il n'est pas de plaisir plus doux que de surprendre un homme en lui donnant plus qu'il n'espère. <br class="br">XXVIII: "La Fausse Monnaie" http://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/Petits_Po%C3%A8mes_en_prose_-_XXVIII._La_Fausse_Monnaie <br class="br">Le Spleen de Paris (1862)