“Political writing, of either side of the question, is of little service to the entertainment or instruction of the reader. Abuse and scurrillity are generally the chief figures in the language of party.”

A sceptical judgement on partisan writing and its tendency towards abuse · Prose satire, Memoirs of a Sad Dog

• Art
• Truth

“When an author resolves to think himself in the right, it is more than human argument can do to convince him he is in the wrong.”

A durable joke about authorial certainty and resistance to correction · Prose satire, Memoirs of a Sad Dog

• Art
• Truth

“This vanity of surviving our dust by lasting monuments of national gratitude, has prompted men to the most noble actions.”

A sharp observation on fame, mortality and the motive power of remembrance · Essay, On the Origin, Nature, and Design of Sculpture

• Fame
• Memory
• Mortality

“Heroes, patriots, and statesmen, are not only entitled to the love and veneration of their cotemporaries during their lives, but their virtues and services ought to be transmitted to the latest posterity.”

He argues that public art should carry worthy lives into collective memory · Essay, On the Origin, Nature, and Design of Sculpture

• Art
• Fame
• Memory

“The Gothic sculpture sprung afterwards from a wild imagination, unassisted by nature.”

A revealing judgement on the relationship between imagination and nature · Essay, On the Origin, Nature, and Design of Sculpture

• Art
• Nature

“Sculpture is an art which, by design and solid matter, imitates the palpable objects of nature.”

A compact definition of sculpture as imitation made tangible · Essay, On the Origin, Nature, and Design of Sculpture

• Art
• Nature

“God had sent His creatures into the world with arms long enough to reach anything, if they would be at the trouble of extending them.”

An early recollection of his fierce belief in effort and self-reliance · Reported maxim, preserved in Croft's Love and Madness

• Hope
• Truth

“I have sent twice for a copy of the MSs – no answer from you – an explanation or excuse for your silence would oblige.”

An impatient demand for both his papers and an explanation · Letter to Horace Walpole, 24 July 1769

• Fame
• Truth

“I think myself injured Sir & did not you know my circumstances you would not dare to treat me thus.”

A defiant protest against what he regarded as condescension and neglect · Letter to Horace Walpole, 24 July 1769

• Fame
• Truth

“I can not reconcile your behavior to me, with the notion I once entertained of you.”

A direct expression of disappointment in a hoped-for literary patron · Letter to Horace Walpole, 24 July 1769

• Friendship
• Truth

“I should be sorry to deprive him, or the World indeed of a Valuable Curiosity which I know to be an Authentic Piece of Antiquity.”

A bold assertion made during his attempt to sustain the Rowley fiction · Letter to Horace Walpole, 14 April 1769

• Art
• Fame
• Truth

“Being fully convinced of the Papers of Rowley being genuine, I should be obliged to you to return the copy I sent you having no other.”

A firm request for the return of the manuscript he had sent Walpole · Letter to Horace Walpole, 14 April 1769

• Art
• Truth

“I am now about an Oratorio, which when finished will purchase you a gown.”

A warm promise to share the hoped-for proceeds of his work with his sister · Letter to Mary Chatterton, 20 July 1770

• Friendship
• Hope
• Music

“I shall forestall your intended journey, and pop down upon you at Christmas.”

A cheerful promise of reunion that became poignantly unfulfilled · Letter to Sarah Chatterton, 8 July 1770

• Friendship
• Hope

“His Lordship received me as politely as a citizen could: and warmly invited me to call on him again.”

A pleased report of social recognition from the Lord Mayor · Letter to Mary Chatterton, 30 May 1770

• Fame
• Hope

“My present profession obliges me to frequent places of the best resort.”

He treats literary networking as part of the profession of authorship · Letter to Mary Chatterton, 30 May 1770

• Art
• Fame

“There is such noise of business and politicks, in the room, that my inaccuracy in writing here, is highly excusable.”

A vivid snapshot of writing amid the bustle of a London coffee-house · Letter to Mary Chatterton, 30 May 1770

• Art

“A gentleman who knows me at the Chapter, as an author, would have introduced me as a companion to the young Duke of Northumberland, in his intended general tour. But, alas! I spake no tongue but my own.”

Ambition meets a practical limit in his lack of foreign languages · Letter to Sarah Chatterton, 14 May 1770

• Fame
• Hope

“I am quite familiar at the Chapter Coffee-house, and know all the geniuses there.”

A proud glimpse of his rapid entry into London's literary circles · Letter to Sarah Chatterton, May 1770

• Art
• Fame
• Friendship

“But here matters are otherwise; had Rowley been a Londoner, instead of a Bristowyan, I could have lived by copying his works.”

A revealing comparison between London's literary market and Bristol's · Letter to Sarah Chatterton, 14 May 1770

• Art
• Fame

“As to Mr. Barrett, Mr. Catcott, Mr. Burgum, &c. &c. they rate literary lumber so low, that I believe an author, in their estimation, must be poor indeed!”

A barbed complaint about the low value placed on literary work in Bristol · Letter to Sarah Chatterton, 14 May 1770

• Art
• Fame

“What with writing for publications, and going to places of public diversion, which is as absolutely necessary to me as food, I find but little time to write to you.”

Writing and public life are presented as necessities rather than luxuries · Letter to Sarah Chatterton, 14 May 1770

• Art
• Joy

“Don't be surprised at the name of the place. I am not here as a prisoner.”

A playful reassurance written from the King's Bench area · Letter to Sarah Chatterton, 14 May 1770

• Hope
• Joy

“I am surprised that no letter has been sent to my last.”

A simple line revealing his eagerness for news from home · Letter to Sarah Chatterton, 6 May 1770

• Friendship
• Solitude