We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle read more

We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.

A blow with a word strikes deeper than a blow with a sword.

A blow with a word strikes deeper than a blow with a sword.

No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting.

No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting.

Criticism is a misconception: we must read not to understand others but to understand ourselves.

Criticism is a misconception: we must read not to understand others but to understand ourselves.

Criticism is an indirect form of self-boasting.

Criticism is an indirect form of self-boasting.

I must claim the quoter's privilege of giving only as much of the text as will suit my purpose, said read more

I must claim the quoter's privilege of giving only as much of the text as will suit my purpose, said Tan-Chun. If I told you how it went on, I should end up by contradicting myself!

If writers were good businessmen, they'd have too much sense to be writers.

If writers were good businessmen, they'd have too much sense to be writers.

If evil be spoken of you and it be true, correct yourself, if it be a lie, laugh at it.

If evil be spoken of you and it be true, correct yourself, if it be a lie, laugh at it.

Quotation... A writer expresses himself in words that have been used before because they give his meaning better than he read more

Quotation... A writer expresses himself in words that have been used before because they give his meaning better than he can give it himself, or because they are beautiful or witty, or because he expects them to touch a cord of association in his reader, or because he wishes to show that he is learned and well read. Quotations due to the last motive are invariably ill-advised; the discerning reader detects it and is contemptuous; the undiscerning is perhaps impressed, but even then is at the same time repelled, pretentious quotations being the surest road to tedium.