STYLE
Alford, Henry
If the way in which men express their thoughts is slipshod and mean, it will be very difficult for their thoughts themselves to escape being the same.
Bancroft, George
Style is the gossamer on which the seeds of truth float through the world.
Blair, Hugh
The least degree of ambiguity, which leaves the mind in suspense as to the meaning, ought to be avoided with the greatest care.
Buffon, Georges Louis
Style is a man's own; it is a part of his nature.
Chesterfield, Philip Domer Stanhope
Style is the dress of thoughts; let them be ever so just, if your style is homely, coarse, and vulgar, they will appear to as much disadvantage, and be as ill received, as your person, though ever so well proportioned, would be if dressed in rags, dirt, and tatters.
Coleridge, Samuel Taylor
Intense study of the Bible will keep any man from being vulgar in point of style.
Words in prose ought to express the intended meaning; if they attract attention to themselves, it is a fault; in the very best styles you read page after page without noticing the medium.
Colton, Caleb C.
Nothing is so difficult as the apparent ease of a clear and flowing style.—Those graces which, from their presumed facility, encourage all to attempt to imitate them, are usually the most inimitable.
Antithesis may be the blossom of wit, but it will never arrive at maturity unless sound sense be the trunk, and truth the root.
Perhaps that is nearly the perfection of good writing which effects that for knowledge which the lens effects for the sunbeam when it condenses its brightness in order to increase its force.
Cotta, Johann Friedrich
An era is fast approaching when no writer will be read by the majority, except those that can effect that for bales of manuscript that the hydrostatic screw performs for bales of cotton, by condensing into a period what before occupied a page.
Emmons, Nathaniel
Style is only the frame to hold our thoughts. It is like the sash of a window, if heavy it will obscure the light. The object is to have as little sash as will hold the light, that we may not think of the former, but have the latter.
If a man really has an idea he can communicate it; and if he has a clear one, he will communicate it clearly.
Feltham, Owen
A sentence well couched takes both the sense and the understanding.
Fenelon, Francis de S.
A man's style is nearly as much a part of himself as his face, or figure, or the throbbing of his pulse; in short, as any part of his being which is subjected to the action of his will.
Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von
Generally speaking, an author's style is a faithful copy of his mind. If you would write a lucid style, let there first be light in your own mind; and if you would write a grand style, you ought to have a grand character.
He who would reproach an author for obscurity should look into his own mind to see whether it is quite clear there. In the dusk the plainest writing is illegible.
Goldsmith, Oliver
The unaffected of every country nearly resemble each other, and a page of Confucius and Tillotson have scarce any material difference, paltry affectation, strained allusions, and disgusting finery are easily attained by those who choose to wear them; they are but too frequently the badges of ignorance or of stupidity whenever it would endeavor to please.
Hare, August W.
When you doubt between words, use the plainest, the commonest, the most idiomatic.—Eschew fine words as you would rouge, and love simple ones as you would native roses on your cheek.
Hazlitt, William
To write in a genuine familiar or truly English style is to write as any one would speak in common conversation, who had a thorough command and choice of words, or who could discourse with ease, force, and perspicuity, setting aside all pedantic and oratorical flourishes.
Irving, Washington
He who thinks much says but little in proportion to his thoughts. He selects that language which will convey his ideas in the most explicit and direct manner. He tries to compress as much thought as possible into a few words. On the contrary, the man who talks everlastingly and promiscuously, who seems to have an exhaustless magazine of sound, crowds so many words into his thoughts that he always obscures, and very frequently conceals them.
Johnson, Samuel
Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison.
Joubert, Joseph
The lively phraseology of Montesquieu was the result of long meditation. His words, as light as wings, bear on them grave reflections.
Kingsley, Charles
If I am ever obscure in my expressions, do not fancy that therefore I am deep. If I were really deep, all the world would understand, though they might not appreciate. The perfectly popular style is the perfectly scientific one. To me an obscurity is a reason for suspecting a fallacy.
Landor, Walter Savage
Clear writers, like clear fountains, do not seem so deep as they are; the turbid looks most profound.
Every good writer has much idiom; it is the life and spirit of language.
Latin, Proverbs
The style shows the man. Whether in speaking or writing, a gentleman is always known by his style.
Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
With many readers, brilliancy of style passes for affluence of thought; they mistake buttercups in the grass for immeasurable gold mines under ground.
Macaulay, Thomas Babington
Propriety of thought and propriety of diction are commonly found together. Obscurity and affectation are the two greatest faults of style.
Obscurity and affectation are the two great faults of style. Obscurity of expression generally springs from confusion of ideas; and the same wish to dazzle, at any cost, which produces affectation in the manner of a writer, is likely to produce sophistry in his reasoning.
Melmoth, William
A copious manner of expression gives strength and weight to our ideas, which frequently make impression upon the mind, as iron does upon solid bodies, rather by repeated strokes than a single blow.
Necker, Madame
A pure style in writing results from the rejection of everything superfluous.
Niebuhr, Barthold G.
The old prose writers wrote as if they were speaking to an audience; among us, prose is invariably written for the eye alone.
Pascal, Blaise
Those who make antitheses by forcing the sense are like men who make false windows for the sake of symmetry. Their rule is not to speak justly, but to make accurate figures.
When we meet with a natural style we are surprised and delighted, for we expected to find an author, and have found a man.
Quintilian
The obscurity of a writer is generally in proportion to his incapacity.
Schiller, Johann Christoph Friedrich von
In what he leaves unsaid I discover a master of style.
Shenstone, William
Long sentences in a short composition are like large rooms in a little house.
I hate a style that is wholly flat and regular, that slides along like an eel, and never rises to what one can call an inequality.
South, Robert
There is a certain majesty in plainness; as the proclamation of a prince never frisks it in tropes or fine conceits, in numerous and well-turned periods, but commands in sober natural expressions.
Steele, Sir Richard
To have good sense and ability to express it are the most essential and necessary qualities in companions. When thoughts rise in us fit to utter among familiar friends, there needs but very little care in clothing them.
Swift, Jonathan
Style may be defined, "proper words in proper places."
Tuckerman, Henry Theodore
It is equally true of the pen as the pencil, that what is drawn from life and the heart alone bears the impress of immortality.
Vauvenargues, Luc de Clapiers
Perspicuity is the framework of profound thoughts.
Voltaire, Francois Marie de
A great writer possesses, so to speak, an individual and unchangeable style, which does not permit him easily to preserve the anonymous.
Whipple, Edwin Percy
Any style formed in imitation of some model must be affected and straight-laced.
Wilkins, John
Obscurity in writing is commonly a proof of darkness in the mind; the greatest learning is to be seen in the greatest plainness.
Willmott, Robert Aris
Whatever is pure is also simple; it does not keep the eye on itself.—The observer forgets the window in the landscape it displays.—A fine style gives the view of fancy—of its figures, its trees, its palaces without a spot.
Wirt, William
In composing, think much more of your matter than your manner. Spirit, grace, and dignity of manner are of great importance, both to the speaker and writer; but of infinitely more importance are the weight and worth of matter.
