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The writer's Queen Victoria is his public, and he would do well to keep a bust of the old Queen on his desk with the legend We are not amused hanging from it.

Henry Watson Fowler

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Henry Watson Fowler
Age: 75 †
Born: 1858
Born: March 10
Died: 1933
Died: December 26
Journalist
Lexicographer
Linguist
Pedagogue
Writer
Tonbridge
Kent
Wells
Legends
Well
Hanging
Would
Queen
Bust
Queens
Victoria
Writer
Amused
Humor
Legend
Public
Desk
Keep
Desks

More quotes by Henry Watson Fowler

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The purpose of paragraphing is to give the reader a rest. The writer is saying . . . : Have you got that? If so, I'll go to the next point.
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Be direct, simple, brief, vigorous, and lucid.
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Prefer the familiar word to the far-fetched. Prefer the concrete word to the abstract. Prefer the single word to the circumlocution. Prefer the short word to the long. Prefer the Saxon word to the Romance.
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Those who run to long words are mainly the unskillful and tasteless they confuse pomposity with dignity, flaccidity with ease, and bulk with force.
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Those who are addicted to the phrase to use a vulgarism expect to achieve the feat of being at once vulgar and superior to vulgarity.
Henry Watson Fowler