The obvious is better than obvious avoidance of it.

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.

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

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 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.

It has been aptly said that all Egypt is but the facade of an immense sepulcher.

That society exists to frustrate the individual may be seen from its attitude to work. It is only morally acceptable if you do not want to do it. If you do want to, it becomes a personal pleasure.

The American color bar unless speedily removed will be the rock on which our international Good Neighbor policy and our pious claims to moral leadership will founder.

I don't like theorizing about my work myself, but that's not to say I have no interest in theory. Other people are free to say what they want about my work.

Death is the final wake-up call.

Life is so complicated a game that the devices of skill are liable to be defeated at every turn by air-blown chances, incalculable as the descent of thistle-down.

I love what I know about passion, I love what I know about mercy, I love what I know about patience, I love what I know about soul, and I know you.

Things I say have value and I would love for you to value them, however you get it.

I believe in happy endings," I tell him, "And it feels like this movie has gone on for the right amount of time.

The Statue of Liberty is no longer saying, 'Give me your poor, your tired, your huddled masses.' She's got a baseball bat and yelling, 'You want a piece of me?'