“I am a bad trading author, and doomed always to be so, but it is not the bookseller’s fault.”

Self-deprecating humour about the commercial side of authorship · Letter to S. T. Coleridge, 12 February 1808

• Humour
• Work
• Writing

“The will and the power to produce anything great are not often found together.”

A compact observation on the gap between aspiration and achievement · Letter to Walter Savage Landor, 2 May 1808

• Perseverance
• Skill
• Work