Samuel JohnsonMy congratulations to you, sir. 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.
About This Quote
Oliver Wendell Holmes said, “My congratulations to you, sir. 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.” The story of this quote has been passed down through the years. It appears that the author (for example, Oliver Wendell Holmes) was referring to an essay by another writer (for example, Edgar Allan Poe). The memo believed to have been written by Holmes was read in a letter by David Eugene Smith. He wrote in his diary about his reaction to hearing this quote for the first time in his life: “I thought it was a slip of the pen when I first heard it.”
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More Quotes By Samuel Johnson
- It is necessary to hope... for hope itself is happiness.
- I hate mankind, for I think myself one of the best of them, and I know how bad I am.
- In order that all men may be taught to speak truth, it is necessary that all likewise should learn to hear it.
- Poetry is the art of uniting pleasure with truth.
- Whoever thou art that, not content with a moderate condition, imaginest happiness in royal magnificence, and dreamest that command or riches can feed the appetite of novelty with perpetual gratifications, survey the Pyramids, and confess thy folly!