Joseph Addison Quotes

Writing and reading and speaking with specificity and skill has never seen more important to me than it does at this moment. It's what's between us and chaos.

There are people who have tremendously important things to say, but they say it so poorly that nobody would ever want to read it.

He that uses his words loosely and unsteadily will either not be minded or not understood.

Clarity in language depends on clarity in thought.

A sentence well couched takes both the sense and understanding. I love not those cart-rope speeches that are longer than the memory of man can fathom.

If you make yourself understood, you're always speaking well.

A poor idea well written is more likely to be accepted than a good idea poorly written.

It is a difficult task to talk to the purpose, and to put life and perspicuity into our discourse.

The habit of writing clearly soon comes to the writer who is a severe critic to himself.

Every man should study conciseness in speaking; it is a sign of ignorance not to know that long speeches, though they may please the speaker, are the torture of the hearer.

The difficulty is not to write, but to write what you mean.

People who think well, write well

If you can't write clearly, you probably don't think nearly as well as you think you do.

A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus: 1. What am I trying to say? 2. What words will express it? 3. What image or idiom will make it clearer? 4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?

Reasonable men are the best dictionaries of conversation.

A writer should never be brief at the expense of being clear.

To get the right word in the right place is a rare achievement.

Good communication does not mean that you have to speak in perfectly formed sentences and paragraphs. It isn't about slickness. Simple and clear go a long way.

Short, sweet, and to the point. Clear writing, and therefore clear commands, comes from clear thinking. Think simple.

To communicate, put your words in order; give them a purpose; use them to persuade, to instruct, to discover, to seduce.

Easy reading requires hard writing.

You say what you have to say. But you have to learn to say it in such a way that the reader can see what you mean.

An effective speaker can do more damage or more good in a well-stated minute than an angry klutz could do in half an hour.

I see but one rule: to be clear.

Prose talent depends on having something to say and an interesting, highly developed way of saying it.