#1: Words Become Superfluous
“A kiss is a lovely trick, designed by nature, to stop speech when words become superfluous.” – Ingrid Bergman
#2: Long Words
“'Well,' said Owl, 'the customary procedure in such cases is as follows.'
'What does Crustimoney Proseedcake mean?' - said Pooh. 'For I am a Bear of Very Little Brain, and long words Bother me.'
'It means the Thing to Do.'
'As long as it means that, I don't mind,' said Pooh humbly.'” – A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh, 1926
#3: Limits of My Language
“The limits of my language are the limits of my mind. All I know is what I have words for.” – Ludwig Wittgenstein,Philosophical Investigations, 1953
#4: Wit
“Wit has truth in it; wisecracking is simply calisthenics with words.” – Dorothy Parker, interview in Paris Review, 1956
#5: The Smallest Ideas
“He can compress the most words into the smallest ideas of any man I ever met.” – Abraham Lincoln, quoted in Frederick Trevor Hill'sLincoln the Lawyer, 1906
#6: Invisible Ink
“The pages are still blank, but there is a miraculous feeling of the words all being there, written in invisible ink and clamoring to become visible.” – Vladimir Nabokov,Lectures on Literature, 1980
#7: Clear Language
“The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish spurting out ink.”
– George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language," 1946
– George Orwell, "Politics and the English Language," 1946
#8: Nouns and Verbs
“Write with nouns and verbs, not with adjectives and adverbs. The adjective hasn't been built that can pull a weak or inaccurate noun out of a tight place.” – William Strunk and E.B. White, The Elements of Style, 1959 (A variation of this idea: "The road to hell is paved with adverbs." – Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, 2000.)
#9: Rush-Hour Trafic
“For there is no doubt that I have lots of words inside me; but at moments, like rush-hour traffic at the mouth of a tunnel, they jam.” – John Updike, Self-Consciousness, 1989
#10: Lightning
“The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter – it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.” – Mark Twain, 1888