The two most engaging powers of an author are to make new things familiar, familiar things new.

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In this work are exhibited in a very high degree the two most engaging powers of an author. New things are made familiar, and familiar things are made new. ~ Samuel Johnson, "The Life of Alexander Pope" from Lives of the English Poets (1781)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: William Makepeace Thackeray (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.