The Quotes canon
Sourced and curated.
Every quote has been curated by hand and carefully authenticated.
Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Good writing7 quotes
Good prose is like a windowpane. — George Orwell · 1946Proper words in proper places, make the true definition of a style. — Jonathan Swift · 1720Omit needless words. 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 subject only in outline, but that every word tell. — William Strunk, Jr. · 1919When we see a natural style, we are quite surprised and delighted, for we expected to see an author and we find a man. — Blaise Pascal · 1662A sentence should read as if its author, had he held a plough instead of a pen, could have drawn a furrow deep and straight to the end. — Henry David Thoreau · 1849A good writer seems to be writing about himself, (but never is,) but has his eye always on that thread of the Universe which runs through himself, & all things. — Ralph Waldo Emerson · 1867All 7 quotes →Writing6 quotes
Good prose is like a windowpane. — George Orwell · 1946Proper words in proper places, make the true definition of a style. — Jonathan Swift · 1720When we see a natural style, we are quite surprised and delighted, for we expected to see an author and we find a man. — Blaise Pascal · 1662A sentence should read as if its author, had he held a plough instead of a pen, could have drawn a furrow deep and straight to the end. — Henry David Thoreau · 1849A good writer seems to be writing about himself, (but never is,) but has his eye always on that thread of the Universe which runs through himself, & all things. — Ralph Waldo Emerson · 1867Words have weight, sound, and appearance; it is only by considering these that you can write a sentence that is good to look at and good to listen to. — W. Somerset Maugham · 1948Power of literature1 quote
Good prose is like a windowpane. — George Orwell · 1946Universality of literature1 quote
A good writer seems to be writing about himself, (but never is,) but has his eye always on that thread of the Universe which runs through himself, & all things. — Ralph Waldo Emerson · 1867Words1 quote
Words have weight, sound, and appearance; it is only by considering these that you can write a sentence that is good to look at and good to listen to. — W. Somerset Maugham · 1948