(Sydney) Smith’s Secret
Sydney Smith
Digestion is the great secret of life.
Blundell’s Law
William E. Blundell
All books over five hundred pages that weren’t written by Dickens or a dead Russian are better left on the shelf.
Byron’s Law
Byron
Truth is stranger than fiction.
Cohen’s Rules of Book Publishing
Roger Cohen
1. There is only one thing worse than losing an auction for a book - and that is winning it.
2. It is nearly always more profitable to leave your money in the bank than to venture into trade book publishing [i.e. fiction and non-fiction for general readers as opposed to textbooks, reference books and so on] where a profit margin of even 5 percent is elusive.
3. No two people will agree on anything, even where to have lunch.
Creasey’s Law
John Creasey
Never buy an editor or publisher a lunch or a drink until he has bought an article, story or book from you. This rule is absolute and may be broken only at your peril.
Duggan’s Law of Scholarly Research
Michael A. Duggan
The most valuable quotation will be the one for which you cannot determine the source.
Gibbon’s Law
Edward Gibbon
All that is human must retrograde if it does not advance.
Maddocks’s Law of Literature
Melvin Maddocks
Novelists with the most damned consciences tend to write the most blessed prose.
Mizner’s Law of Research
Wilson Mizner
If you steal from one author it’s plagiarism; if you steal from many it’s research.
Plimpton’s Small Ball Theory
George Plimpton
The smaller the ball used in a sport, the better the book.
