Words

“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

“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

"...wisecracking is simply calisthenics with words," Dorothy Parker, interview in Paris Review, 1956

“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

 

“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

"The road to hell is paved with adverbs." – Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, 2000

“A kiss is a lovely trick, designed by nature, to stop speech when words become superfluous," Ingrid Bergman