Alexander Smith Quotes

Most people, when they talk fast, they get flat.

The manner of your speaking is full as important as the matter, as more people have ears to be tickled than understandings to judge.

Remember that how you say something is as important as what you say.

Words - so innocent and powerless as they are, as standing in a dictionary, how potent for good and evil they become in the hands of one who knows how to combine them.

Unlike the current occupant of the White House [George W. Bush], he has no difficulty in orally extemporizing a series of grammatical English sentences, each containing a main verb.

Tone matters more than words.

I enjoy finding the right word and giving each its full measure, its full space in a sentence.

There are various ways of delivering some kind of truth, so I try to find the style or the way that I find more effective.

What I really like to learn how to do is to build sentences that are equal to mental states.

Nor use too swelling, or ill-sounded words . . . .

Your message means less than the way the message is delivered, because in actuality, the way the message is delivered, IS the message.

Every word you add dilutes the sentence.

I'm probably more interested in sentences than anything else in life.

I try to be specific. One thought at a time. Clear. Articulate. And above all, memorable, if you can be. You'd like to write phrases that people can't forget as soon as they read them.

Some men at the approach of a dispute neigh like horses. Unless there be an argument, they think nothing is doing. Some talkers excel in the precision with which they formulate their thoughts, so that you get from them somewhat to remember; others lay criticism asleep by a charm. Especially women use words that are not words,--as steps in a dance are not steps,--but reproduce the genius of that they speak of; as the sound of some bells makes us think of the bell merely, whilst the church chimes in the distance bring the church and its serious memories before us.

Realize now the power that your words command if you simply choose them wisely.

It has seemed to be more necessary to have regard to the weight of words rather than to their number.

Kat looked at Hale. "I've never heard Marcus talk this much." "Yeah," Hale whispered. "I'm trying to decide if I like it." Just then, Marcus took the ruler and struck Eddie in the stomach. "Hale men speak from the diaphragm!" Hale nodded. "I definitely like it.

There are some simple maxims which I think might be commended to writers of expository prose. First: never use a long word if a short word will do. So, if you want to make a statement with a great many qualifications, put some of the qualifications in separate sentences. Third: do not let the beginning of your sentence lead the reader to an expectation which is contradicted by the end.

He formed his sentences hesitantly and then threw them at me with such force that I felt as if I were receiving a present each time

I think I have to be aware of how much power words can have. And it makes me consider everything that I say before I say it, because you can really help a lot of people, or you can really, really mess things up.

It is not so much the content of what one says as the way in which one says it. However important the thing you say, what's the good of it if not heard or, being heard, not felt?

His voice wore no pants.

Well chosen words mixed with measured emotions is the basis of affecting people.

Use familiar words-words that your readers will understand, and not words they will have to look up. No advice is more elementary, and no advice is more difficult to accept. When we feel an impulse to use a marvelously exotic word, let us lie down until the impulse goes away.