It need hardly be said that shortness is a merit in words.

Any one who wishes to become a good writer should endeavour, before he allows himself to be tempted by the more showy qualities, to be direct, simple, brief, vigorous, and lucid.

The purpose of paragraphing is to give the reader a rest. The writer is saying . . . : Have you got that? If so, I'll go to the next point.

Those who run to long words are mainly the unskillful and tasteless; they confuse pomposity with dignity, flaccidity with ease, and bulk with force.

Be direct, simple, brief, vigorous, and lucid.

Anyone who finds himself putting down several commas close to one another should reflect that he is making himself disagreeable.

After all, it is an ancient and valuable right of the English people to turn their nouns into verbs when they are so minded.

We tell our thoughts, like our children, to put on their hats and coats before they go out.

Those who are addicted to the phrase "to use a vulgarism" expect to achieve the feat of being at once vulgar and superior to vulgarity.

The obvious is better than obvious avoidance of it.

The writer's Queen Victoria is his public, and he would do well to keep a bust of the old Queen on his desk with the legend "We are not amused" hanging from it.

great books are the ones we need

Experience is not a means to realize the truth. Experience is the truth.

I’m all alone against the darkness. Dark winds rising against me.

I think we would have made a lot more mistakes and would have accomplished a lot less had we not been grounded in some basic truths.

One does not contradict the other.Straight-faced is the basis of all decent comedy.

The immense majority of human biographies are a gray transit between domestic spasm and oblivion.

A sponge has that much absorbent capability and after a while you can pour water over it and nothing stays.

People are really stuck on their ideas about themselves.

The fight for the right to life is not the cause of a special few, but the cause of every man, woman and child who cares not only about his or her own family, but the whole family of man.

I use heavy strings, tune low, play hard, and floor it. Floor it. That's technical talk.