Quote

Those who run to long words are mainly the unskillful and tasteless they confuse pomposity with dignity, flaccidity with ease, and bulk with force.

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
Ease
Dignity
Words
Unskillful
Force
Pomposity
Running
Tasteless
Long
Bulk
Confuse
Mainly

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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.
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Be direct, simple, brief, vigorous, and lucid.
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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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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 are addicted to the phrase to use a vulgarism expect to achieve the feat of being at once vulgar and superior to vulgarity.
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