One of Tennyson's pieces was rewritten fifty times.

John Owen was twenty years on his "Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews;" Gibbon on his "Decline and Fall," twenty years; and Adam Clark, on his "Commentary," twenty-six years.

Carlyle spent fifteen years on his "Frederick the Great." A great deal of time is consumed in reading before some books are prepared.

George Eliot read 1000 books before she wrote "Daniel Deronda." Allison read 2000 before he completed his history.

It is said of another that he read 20,000 and wrote only two books.
Virgil spent several years on the Georgics, which could be printed in two columns of an ordinary newspaper.
"Generally speaking," said Sydney Smith, "the life of all truly great men has been a life of intense and incessant labor.