Sweet is the voice of a sister in the season of sorrow.
Benjamin DisraeliRead
I think that an author who speaks about his own books is almost as bad as a mother who talks about her own children.
Interpretation
What this quote means
An author discussing their own work is often seen as self-serving, much like a mother overly praising her children.
In this quote, Benjamin Disraeli suggests that when authors promote their own books, it can come off as biased and insincere, similar to a mother who excessively boasts about her children's accomplishments. This implies that a level of humility and restraint is more admirable, as it allows the quality of the work to speak for itself rather than relying on the author's personal endorsement, which may not be taken seriously by others.
Themes
AuthorshipSelf-PromotionHumilityLiteratureOpinion
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the importance of objective criticism in literature, this quote can be used to emphasize the need for authors to let their works speak for themselves.
More from Benjamin Disraeli
All quotes βBut what minutes! Count them by sensation, and not by calendars, and each moment is a day.
Benjamin DisraeliRead
Grief is the agony of an instant. The indulgence of grief the blunder of a life.
Benjamin DisraeliRead
Action may not always bring happiness; but there is no happiness without action.
Benjamin DisraeliRead
Yes, I am a Jew and when the ancestors of the right honorable gentleman were brutal savages in an unknown island, mine were priests in the temple of Solomon.
Benjamin DisraeliRead
The practice of politics in the East may be defined by one word: dissimulation.
Benjamin DisraeliRead
Similar quotes
Translations are a partial and precious documentation of the changes the text suffers.
Jorge Luis BorgesRead
After I won the Newbery Medal for 'From the Mixed-up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler,' children all over the world let me know that they liked books that take them to unusual places where they meet unusual people.
E. L. KonigsburgRead
Stories you read when you're the right age never quite leave you. You may forget who wrote them or what the story was called. Sometimes you'll forget precisely what happened, but if a story touches you it will stay with you, haunting the places in your mind that you rarely ever visit.
Neil GaimanRead
Comerado, this is no book,Who touches this, touches a man,(Is it night? Are we here alone?)It is I you hold, and who holds you,I spring from the pages into your arms-decease calls me forth.
Walt WhitmanRead
When I think of the books I love, there's always a little laughter in the dark.
Zadie SmithRead
Literature is dangerous: it awakens a rebellious attitude in us.
Mario Vargas LlosaRead