All I need is a sheet of paper
and something to write with, and then
I can turn the world upside down.

Twofold misjudgement. - The misfortune suffered by clear-minded and easily understood writers is that they are taken for shallow and thus little effort is expended on reading them: and the good fortune that attends the obscure is that the reader toils at them and ascribes to them the pleasure he has in fact gained from his own zeal.

You look up when you wish to be exalted. And I look down because I am exalted.

Against the censurers of brevity. - Something said briefly can be the fruit of much long thought: but the reader who is a novice in this field, and has as yet reflected on it not at all, sees in everything said briefly something embryonic, not without censuring the author for having served him up such immature and unripened fare.

A book calls for pen, ink, and a writing desk; today the rule is that pen, ink, and a writing desk call for a book.

It takes less time to learn how to write nobly than how to write lightly and straightforwardly