A quotation from Richard Steele

The prevailing humour of crying up authors that have writ in the days of our forefathers, and of passing slightly over the merit of our contemporaries, is a grievance that men of a free and unprejudiced thought have complained of through all ages in their writings.

Richard Steele (1672-1729) Anglo-Irish writer, journalist, playwright, politician
Essay (1713-04-09), The Guardian, No. 25


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then the most surefire way for a writer to acquire the admiration of their contemporaries is to cease being one of them.

Death removes all the irritating defects of a living author (ambition, opinions, success) & leaves behind the most respectable of literary virtues: an inability to reply to critics.