Accurate Expression Quotes

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

Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say 'infinitely' when you mean 'very'; otherwise you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.

The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter - 'tis the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning.

Accuracy of language is one of the bulwarks of truth.

Don't write so that you can be understood, write so that you can't be misunderstood.

The ability to speak exactly is intimately related to the ability to know exactly.

To find a new word that is accurate and different, you have to be alert for it.

The single most important lesson of effective communication is this: Focus on clarity. Concentrate on precisions. Don’t worry about constructing beautiful sentences. Beauty comes from meaning, not language. Accuracy is the most effective style of all.

Brevity and conciseness are the parents of correction.

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

It is not easy to write a familiar style. Many people mistake a familiar for a vulgar style, and suppose that to write without affectation is to write at random. On the contrary, there is nothing that requires more precision, and, if I may so say, purity of expression, than the style I am speaking of. It utterly rejects not only all unmeaning pomp, but all low, cant phrases, and loose, unconnected, slipshod allusions. It is not to take the first word that offers, but the best word in common use; it is not to throw words together in any combinations we please, but to follow and avail ourselves of the true idiom of the language.

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

If something doesn't come out of your mouth right, you've got to acknowledge the fact that you're trying to deliver an honest performance. If it doesn't' come out of your mouth correctly, then it's not going to work.

We should not write so that it is possible for [the reader] to understand us, but so that it is impossible for him to misunderstand us.

The way for a person to develop a style is (a) to know exactly what he wants to say, and (b) to be sure he is saying exactly that.

When you have a strongly held belief, don't you think it's important to express that belief accurately?