Agnes Repplier Quotes

Why use a modifier to set straight a not-quite-right noun when the right noun is available?

I'd rather fiddle with my phone for precious seconds than neglect an apostrophe; I'd rather insert a word laboriously keyed out than resort to predictive texting for a - acceptable to some - synonym.

Fill your pages with details. Work hard to get the right word.

Writers who hedge their use of unfamiliar, infrequent, or informal words with 'I know that's not a real word,' hoping to distance themselves from criticism, run the risk of creating doubt where perhaps none would have naturally arisen.

How often misused words generate misleading thoughts.

I once wrote deduceable instead of deducible in a book, though nobody then or since has taken me up on it. A small point as they go, perhaps, but Rule I of writing acceptably is to get everything right as far as you can, and in this case I had neglected to.

Whatever one wishes to say, there is one noun only by which to express it, one verb only to give it life, one adjective only which will describe it. One must search until one has discovered them, this noun, this verb, this adjective, and never rest content with approximations, never resort to trickery, however happy, or to vulgarism, in order to dodge the difficulty.

To reason with poorly chosen words is like using a pair of scales with inaccurate weights.

The more words you have at your disposal, the more precisely you can express yourself.

Use the right word, not its second cousin.

Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule.

Even the most honest writer lets slip a word too many when he wants to round off a period.

The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.

Popularity ends on yearbook day-Respect stays forever.

The adjective hasn't been built that can pull a weak or inaccurate noun out of a tight place.

Before using a fine word, make a place for it.

It takes ten times longer to get rid of your reputation than it does to make it.

A single overstatement, wherever or however it occurs, diminishes the whole, and a carefree superlative has the power to destroy, for the reader, the object of the writer's enthusiasm.

Gain at the expense of reputation is manifest loss.

I don't want to say temporary, because temporary is such a trendy word.

We have to train ourselves to use words accurately. And there's so much loose Christian talk, for which I've no doubt been as guilty as any.

It is better to be respected than it is to be popular. Popularity ends on yearbook day, but respect lasts forever.

All of a sudden I found myself with the reputation of being a swinger and a home-wrecker. Beverly Hills wives were supposed to live in fear in case I cast my green orbs in the direction of their men. Ninety-nine per cent of this was total fabrication.

He that is respectless in his courses oft sells his reputation at cheap market.

On matters beyond his ken a gentleman speaks with caution. If names are not right, words are misused. When words are misused, affairs go wrong. When affairs go wrong, courtesy and music droop, law and justice fail. And when law and justice fail them, a people can move neither hand nor foot. So a gentleman must be ready to put names in speech, to put words into deeds. A gentleman is nowise careless of words.