Style is a simple way of saying complicated things. — Jean Cocteau
The object . . . is to discover methods of condensing information concerning large groups of allied facts into brief and compendious expressions suitable for discussion. — Francis Galton
Language is the apparel in which your thoughts parade before the public. — George W. Crane
I like the construction of sentences and the juxtaposition of words-not just how they sound or what they mean, but even what they look like. — Don Delillo
I seek a form of language which will express my ideas for our time. — Arshile Gorky
Slang is a language that rolls up its sleeves, spits on its hands and goes to work. — Carl Sandburg
Language is legislation, speech is its code. We do not see the power which is in speech because we forget that all speech is a classification, and that all classifications are oppressive. — Roland Barthes
We are trapped by language to such a degree that every attempt to formulate insight is a play on words. — Niels Bohr
ORATORY, n. A conspiracy between speech and action to cheat the understanding. A tyranny tempered by stenography. — Ambrose Bierce
The essence of style is a simple way of saying something complex. — Giorgio Armani
Witticism. A sharp and clever remark, usually quoted and seldom noted; what the Philistine is pleased to call a joke. — Ambrose Bierce
My method is to take the utmost trouble to find the right thing to say, and then to say it with the utmost levity. — George Bernard Shaw
Words are to be taken seriously. I try to take seriously acts of language. Words set things in motion. I've seen them doing it. Words set up atmospheres, electrical fields, charges. — Toni Cade Bambara
At any one time language is a kaleidoscope of styles, genres and dialects. — David Crystal
Phrase Quotes
In my early professional years I was asking the question: How can I treat, or cure, or change this person? Now I would phrase the question in this way: How can I provide a relationship which this person may use for his own personal growth? — Carl Rogers
Though liberty is established by law, we must be vigilant, for liberty to enslave us is always present under that very liberty. Our Constitution speaks of the "general welfare of the people." Under that phrase all sorts of excesses can be employed by lusting tyrants to make us bondsmen. — Marcus Tullius Cicero
The most damaging phrase in the language is: 'It's always been done that way.' — Grace Hopper
Stay far from timid only make moves when you're heart's in it, and live the phrase the sky's the limit. — The Notorious B.I.G.
The sea, the great unifier, is man's only hope. Now, as never before, the old phrase has a literal meaning: we are all in the same boat. — Jacques Yves Cousteau
Try to reach for a simple, visual phrase that tells you what the picture is all about and evokes the essence of the story — Saul Bass
The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny...' — Isaac Asimov
A feeble execution is but another phrase for a bad execution; and a government ill executed, whatever may be its theory, must, in practice, be a bad government. — Joseph Story
The phrase 'nature and nurture' is a convenient jingle of words, for it separates under two distinct heads the innumerable elements of which personality is composed. Nature is all that a man brings with himself into the world; nurture is every influence without that affects him after his birth. — Francis Galton
My diminished girth, in tailor phraseology, was hardly conceivable even by my own friends, or my respected medical adviser, until I put on my former clothing, over what I now wear, which is a thoroughly convincing proof of the remarkable change. — William Banting
I remember Elvis as a young man hanging around the Sun Studios. Even then, I knew this kid had a tremendous talent. He was a dynamic young boy. His phraseology, his way of looking at a song, was as unique as Sinatra's. I was a tremendous fan, and had Elvis lived, there would have been no end to his inventiveness. — B. B. King
The particular phraseology of the Constitution of the United States confirms and strengthens the principle, supposed to be essential to all written constitutions, that a law repugnant to the Constitution is void; and that courts, as well as other departments, are bound by that instrument. — John Marshall
Pedantry, in the common acceptation of the word, means an absurd ostentation of learning, and stiffness of phraseology, proceeding from a misguided knowledge of books and a total ignorance of men. — Henry Mackenzie
A vague goal is no goal at all. The Ten Commandments wouldn't be very impressive, for instance, if they weren't specific, but simply were couched in a phraseology such as 'thou shalt not be a bad person. — Neal A. Maxwell
To be candid, in Middlemarch phraseology, meant, to use an early opportunity of letting your friends know that you did not take a cheerful view of their capacity, their conduct, or their position; and a robust candor never waited to be asked for its opinion. — George Eliot
The scholars of Ireland seem not to have the least conception of style, but run on in a flat phraseology, often mingled with barbarous terms. — Jonathan Swift
[Nietzsche's] definition of cruelty informs Artaud's own, declaring that all art embodies and intensifies the underlying brutalities of life to recreate the thrill of experience ... Although Artaud did not formally cite Nietzsche, [their writing] contains a familiar persuasive authority, a similar exuberant phraseology, and motifs in extremis. — Antonin Artaud
I have a habit of comparing the phraseology of communiques...noting a certain similarity of words, a certain similarity of optimism...and a certain similarity in the lack of practical results during the ensuring years. — Margaret Thatcher
It even has the same phraseology as the English orders of knighthood, companions and this sort of thing. — George Woodcock
One thing I noticed after being down in Mississippi for the shoot was that words like "God" and "Jesus" are used all the time, but they're not specifically referring to Jesus. It's sort of this accepted phraseology for love, or spirituality, or whatever it is you personally believe in. — Christina Ricci
I like to relish words and sentences, and phraseology, and there's not much facility for that [playing Maigret]. — Rowan Atkinson
In fact, is beginning to use a lot of the language and phraseology that we have used. In fact, I think I saw Hillary Clinton TV ad, and I thought it was me. — Hillary Clinton
The last thing abandoned by a party is its phraseology. — Alexis de Tocqueville
The lively phraseology of Montesquieu was the result of long meditation. His words, as light as wings, bear on them grave reflections. — Joseph Joubert
There are people who balk at small civilities on account of their manifest insincerity. ... It is better and more logical to accept all the polite phraseology which facilitates intercourse, and contributes to the sweetness of life. If we discarded the formal falsehoods which are the currency of conversation, we should not be one step nearer the vital things of truth. — Agnes Repplier
The enterprise of describing something in language that has never been described before is a very difficult thing to do. When you decide to do away with old cliches or old phraseologies, and to come up with a new way of saying something, it's extremely difficult. — Gao Xingjian
The last thing abandoned by a party is its phraseology, because among political parties, as elsewhere, the vulgar make the language, and the vulgar abandon more easily the ideas that have been instilled into it than the words that it has learnt. — Alexis de Tocqueville
The language denotes the man. A coarse or refined character finds its expression naturally in a coarse or refined phraseology. — Christian Nestell Bovee
But once an original book has been written - and no more than one or two appear in a century - men of letters imitate it, in other words, they copy it so that hundreds of thousands of books are published on exactly the same theme, with slightly different titles and modified phraseology. This should be able to be achieved by apes, who are essentially imitators, provided, of course, that they are able to make use of language. — Pierre Boulle
There's a certain phraseology involved in jazz, and I've moved away from that. — Jan Garbarek
When it meows, one scarcely hears it... It has not the need of words to speak the lengthiest phraseologies. — Charles Baudelaire
In Conclusion
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