To Write is to Act

from Bluepete:

Scribere est agere, fancy Latin words, a legal maxim, 'To write is to act.' '... the author who is bound to write is the man or woman who has acquired, by the continual study of years, exceptional sources of knowledge. If that knowledge is not bequeathed, posterity is a heavy loser.' These are fine words, however, people usually write for lesser reasons. George Orwell in his book, Why I Write (1947) thought there are four great motives for writing: first, sheer egoism, a desire to seem clever, to be talked about, to be remembered after death; second, aesthetic enthusiasm; Third, historical impulse, the desire to see things as they are, to find out true facts and store them up for the use of posterity; and fourth, for a political purpose, and in the use of the word 'political,' Orwell meant to use the word in its widest possible sense, viz., a desire to push the world in a certain direction, to alter other people's idea of the kind of society that they should strive after."

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