Create like a god, command like a king, work like a slave.

Constantin Brâncuşi

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantin_Br%C3%A2ncu%C8%99i

A certain amount of opposition is a great help to a man. Kites rise against, not with the wind.

John Neal

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Neal_(writer)

Poetry is a subject as precise as geometry.

Gustav Flaubert

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_Flaubert

Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one’s thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Wolfgang_von_Goethe

Vanity is the quicksand of reason.

George Sand

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Sand

Education begins the gentleman, but reading, good company and reflection must finish him.

John Locke

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Locke

Only ambitious nonentities and hearty mediocrities exhibit their rough drafts. It’s like passing around examples of sputum.

Vladimir Nabokov

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vladimir_Nabokov

The crime novel should have a compelling and credible plot, characters who are more than stereotypes, good writing and the creative integration of setting, narrative, characterisation and theme. To put it simply, a good detective story should be a good novel.

P.D. James

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._D._James

The presence of those seeking the truth is infinitely to be preferred to the presence of those who think they’ve found it.

Terry Pratchett

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terry_Pratchett