John Florio Quotes

Proverbs accordingly are somewhat analogous to those medical Formulas which, being in frequent use, are kept ready-made-up in the chemists’ shops, and which often save the framing of a distinct Prescription.

I got so tired of hearing those proverbs when I was a child. Now I use them all the time. Sometimes they are the best way to say what needs to be said. I teach them to my students. I have a collection of proverbs for class discussion and writing assignments.

The hardest portion of English, I must say it: Idioms.

Metaphors have a way of holding the most truth in the least space.

I'm obsessed with proverbs because, to me, flexing is being able to say the most with the least amount of words.

We must use words as they are used, or stand aside from life.

Proverbs are the literature of reason, or the statements of absolute truth, without qualification. Like the sacred books of each nation, they are the sanctuary of its intuitions.

Good similes depend upon close observation. They depend upon brevity and wit....They have to fit in context.

Liquid, flowing words are the choicest and the best, if language is regarded as music. But when it is considered as a picture, then there are rough words which are very telling, they make their mark.

Full of wise saws and modern instances.

He mocks proud mockers but gives grace to the humble. from the Book of Proverbs

Proverbs are potted wisdom.

Apt analogies are among the most formidable weapons of the rhetorician.

Words are like money; there is nothing so useless, unless when in actual use.

Eloquence, to produce her full effect, should start from the head of the orator, as Pallas from the brain of Jove, completely armed and equipped. Diffidence, therefore, which is so able a mentor to the writer, would prove a dangerous counsellor for the orator.

Language designed to impress builds a gulf. Language to express builds a bridge.

When I hear the hypercritical quarreling about grammar and style, the position of the particles, etc., etc... I see that they forget that the first requisite and rule is that expression shall be vital and natural.

If criticism is needed, do it tactfully. Don't use a sledgehammer when a fly swatter will do the job.

Taste speaks through a turn of phrase, a curl of the lip, a shrug of the shoulder: it makes an atmosphere.

I think fiction goes to poetry for the intensity of its use of language.

The language you use for your poems should be the language you use with your friends.

You don't have to know the whole language to use it usefully, you can do baby talk, you can do grown up talk, you can cuss in it, you can write poetry, you can be a playwright, is sort of the idea.

She wanted more, more slang, more figures of speech, the bee's knees, the cats pajamas, horse of a different color, dog-tired, she wanted to talk like she was born here, like she never came from anywhere else

Words that do not create images should be discarded.

The use of the right word, the exact word, is the difference between a pencil with a sharp point and a thick crayon.