Quotes from Style

This is a list of quotes that Joseph M. Williams included in his book, Style: Toward Clarity and Grace. All of them illustrate or comment on a concept he discusses in the book.

• Have something to say, and say it as clearly as you can. That is the only secret of style.

Matthew Arnold

• In matter of grave importance, style, not sincerity, is the vital thing.

Oscar Wilde

• Suit the action to the word, the word to the action.

William Shakespeare

• The last thing that one discovers in writing a book is what to put first.

Blaise Pascal

• There is no artifice as good and desirable as simplicity.

St. Francis De Sales

• Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it - wholeheartedly - and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings.

Arthur Quiller-Couch

• Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.

Albert Einstein

• In literature the ambition of the novice is to acquire the literary language; the struggle of the adept is to get rid of it.

G.B. Shaw

• English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment, and education - sometimes it's sheer luck, like getting across the street.

E.B. White