Echoes

Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.

The approach to style is by way of plainness, simplicity, orderliness, sincerity.

Prefer the specific to the general, the definite to the vague, the concrete to the abstract.

Make definite assertions. Avoid tame, colorless, hesitating, non-committal language. Use the word not as a means of denial or in antithesis, never as a means of evasion.

The surest way to arouse and hold the reader's attention is by being specific, definite, and concrete. The greatest writers — Homer, Dante, Shakespeare — are effective largely because they deal in particulars and report the details that matter. Their words call up pictures.

No one can write decently who is distrustful of the reader's intelligence, or whose attitude is patronizing.

Instead of announcing that what you are about to tell is interesting, make it so.

I would prefer inarticulate wisdom to loquacious foolishness.

Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.

Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart.

It seems that perfection is attained not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing more to take away.

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.

I have always been fond of the West African proverb "Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far."

All you have to do is write one true sentence. Write the truest sentence that you know.

The best of artists has no conception that a single block of marble does not contain within itself, beneath its surface; only the hand that obeys the intellect can reach it.

The order and connection of ideas is the same as the order and connection of things.

Good design is as little design as possible. Less, but better — because it concentrates on the essential aspects, and the products are not burdened with non-essentials. Back to purity, back to simplicity.

Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.

Writing is one way to go about thinking, and the practice and habit of writing not only drain the mind but supply it, too.

Your whole duty as a writer is to please and satisfy yourself, and the true writer always plays to an audience of one. Start sniffing the air, or glancing at the Trend Machine, and you are as good as dead, although you may make a nice living.

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

Students, when you want to say something, think about it three times before you say it. Speak only if your words will benefit yourselves and others. Do not speak if it brings no benefit.

Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent perspiration.

To the quiet mind all things are possible.

People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.