Cicero On Writing

Marcus Tullius Cicero

To commit one’s reflections to writing, without being able to arrange or express them clearly or attract the reader by some sort of charm, indicates a man who makes an unpardonable misuse of leisure and his pen.
–Cicero “Tusculan Disputations”

My dear Cicero, why do you have to be so cruel? How many people can match your eloquence and erudition? A handful in more than two thousand years. Should the rest of us not express ourselves at all? Should I stop writing this blog because I often can’t express myself clearly and don’t attract readers by any sort of charm? But I’m just one among millions…

“We’ve all heard that a million monkeys banging on a million typewriters will eventually reproduce the entire works of Shakespeare. Now, thanks to the Internet, we know this is not true.”

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