#Precision Quotes

“Our words must seem to be inevitable.”

“So in writing, there is always a right word, and every other than that is wrong. There is no beauty in words except in their collocation. The effect of a fanciful word misplaced, is like that of a horn of exquisite polish growing on a human head.”

“I hate commas in the wrong places.”

“Concision in style, precision in thought, decision in life.”

“When an instrument admits two constructions, the one safe, the other dangerous, the one precise, the other indefinite, I prefer that which is safe and precise.”

“To use words and phrases in an easygoing manner without scrutinizing them too curiously is not in general a mark of ill-breeding. On the contrary, there is something low-bred in being too precise. But sometimes there is no help for it”

“There's nothing more difficult than a line.”

“Putting down on paper what you have to say is an important part of writing, but the words and ideas have to be shaped and cleaned, cleaned as severely as a dog cleans a bone, cleaned until there's not a shred of anything superfluous.”

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

“Use the right word, not its second cousin.”

“Focus like a laser, not a flashlight”

“Every adjective and adverb is worth five cents. Every verb is worth fifty cents.”

“Look for verbs of muscle, adjectives of exactitude.”

“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.”

“If you miss the first buttonhole, you will not succeed in buttoning up your coat.”

“The best way to carve is not to split.”

“The proper words in the proper places are the true definition of style.”

“Just get the right syllable in the proper place.”

“The little bit (two inches wide) of ivory on which I work with so fine a brush as produces little effect after much labour.”

“The other sad truth about golf spectatorship is that for today's pros it all comes down to the putting, and that the difference between a putt that drops and one that rims the cup, though teleologically enormous, is intellectually negligeable.”

“Not a wasted word. This has been a main point to my literary thinking all my life.”

“I assert that, in any particular natural science, one encounters genuine scientific substance only to the extent that mathematics is present.”

“In every department of physical science there is only so much science, properly so-called, as there is mathematics.”

“Oh, the difference between nearly right and exactly right.”

“All our words from loose using have lost their edge.”

“I'm a really good fine tuner.”

“In language clarity is everything.”

“If language is not correct, then what is said is not what is meant; if what is said is not what is meant, then what must be done remains undone; if this remains undone, morals and art will deteriorate; if justice goes astray, the people will stand about in helpless confusion. Hence there must be no arbitrariness in what is said. This matters above everything.”

“Life is like a parachute jump, you've got to get it right the first time.”

“If names be not correct, language is not in accordance with the truth of things.”

“What is necessary is to rectify names.”

“The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their proper name.”

“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.”

“First be sure that you know exactly what you want to say. Then be sure you have said exactly that.”

“Always try to use the language so as to make quite clear what you mean and make sure your sentence couldn't mean anything else.”