Topic
Writing
Quotes
Words that leave legacies.
Writing is the art of encoding thoughts and ideas into a durable, accessible form, transforming fleeting concepts into tangible records that transcend time and space. This act is deeply meaningful because it allows us to learn from the past, build upon collective knowledge, connect across vast distances, and ultimately, to shape the future of human understanding.
# Writing & Literature
U
Context: • Quintilian 9, 3, 97
• As a legal formula, it exactly corresponds with the Scotch Not proven, and in this sense is used by Cicero, pro Cluentio 28, 76.
• Source: Wikiquote: "Writing style" (Quotes, Classical and Foreign Quotations:
Quotes reported in: W. F. H. King, ed., Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), nos. 277, 333, 447, 1760, 1844, 3025; 1978, 2890; 356, 837, 1648, 1843, 1978, 2431; 1979; 2113; 275; 679; 133, 151, 2879; 1355; 2366; 542, 1421, 1975; 1638, 1693; 3075, Obscurity of style)
• As a legal formula, it exactly corresponds with the Scotch Not proven, and in this sense is used by Cicero, pro Cluentio 28, 76.
• Source: Wikiquote: "Writing style" (Quotes, Classical and Foreign Quotations:
Quotes reported in: W. F. H. King, ed., Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), nos. 277, 333, 447, 1760, 1844, 3025; 1978, 2890; 356, 837, 1648, 1843, 1978, 2431; 1979; 2113; 275; 679; 133, 151, 2879; 1355; 2366; 542, 1421, 1975; 1638, 1693; 3075, Obscurity of style)
“It is not evident.”
— Unknown
Literature
WritingstyleU
Context: • Source: Wikiquote: "Writing style" (Quotes, Classical and Foreign Quotations:
Quotes reported in: W. F. H. King, ed., Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), nos. 277, 333, 447, 1760, 1844, 3025; 1978, 2890; 356, 837, 1648, 1843, 1978, 2431; 1979; 2113; 275; 679; 133, 151, 2879; 1355; 2366; 542, 1421, 1975; 1638, 1693; 3075, Obscurity of style)
Quotes reported in: W. F. H. King, ed., Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), nos. 277, 333, 447, 1760, 1844, 3025; 1978, 2890; 356, 837, 1648, 1843, 1978, 2431; 1979; 2113; 275; 679; 133, 151, 2879; 1355; 2366; 542, 1421, 1975; 1638, 1693; 3075, Obscurity of style)
“Non liquet.”
— Unknown
U
Context: • Source: Wikiquote: "Writing style" (Quotes, Classical and Foreign Quotations:
Quotes reported in: W. F. H. King, ed., Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), nos. 277, 333, 447, 1760, 1844, 3025; 1978, 2890; 356, 837, 1648, 1843, 1978, 2431; 1979; 2113; 275; 679; 133, 151, 2879; 1355; 2366; 542, 1421, 1975; 1638, 1693; 3075, Polished style)
Quotes reported in: W. F. H. King, ed., Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), nos. 277, 333, 447, 1760, 1844, 3025; 1978, 2890; 356, 837, 1648, 1843, 1978, 2431; 1979; 2113; 275; 679; 133, 151, 2879; 1355; 2366; 542, 1421, 1975; 1638, 1693; 3075, Polished style)
“Ore rotundo.”
— Unknown
U
Context: • Horace, Ars Poetica 323
• Polished diction: flowing periods.
• Source: Wikiquote: "Writing style" (Quotes, Classical and Foreign Quotations:
Quotes reported in: W. F. H. King, ed., Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), nos. 277, 333, 447, 1760, 1844, 3025; 1978, 2890; 356, 837, 1648, 1843, 1978, 2431; 1979; 2113; 275; 679; 133, 151, 2879; 1355; 2366; 542, 1421, 1975; 1638, 1693; 3075, Polished style)
• Polished diction: flowing periods.
• Source: Wikiquote: "Writing style" (Quotes, Classical and Foreign Quotations:
Quotes reported in: W. F. H. King, ed., Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), nos. 277, 333, 447, 1760, 1844, 3025; 1978, 2890; 356, 837, 1648, 1843, 1978, 2431; 1979; 2113; 275; 679; 133, 151, 2879; 1355; 2366; 542, 1421, 1975; 1638, 1693; 3075, Polished style)
“In well-turned phrase.”
— Unknown
U
Context: • Adespotos
• Celebrated aphorism, supposed to have been enunciated by Buffon in his no less celebrated Discours de Réception on admission to the French Academy, 25 August 1753. It is one of those numerous cases where one has to record not what the speaker said, so much as what he ought to have said, and the precise form of the phrase is still undetermined. The quotation merely represents the tradition of the vulgar, rejected by the critics in favour either of Le style est de l’homme même, of the Nouvelle Biographie Générale (Didot), s.v. “Buffon”; or of Le style est l’homme même of Richard’s edition of Buffon (Paris, 1842), vol. i. p. 10. The unfortunate circumstance militating against the authenticity of the famous axiom in any shape, is its absence in the official report of the Discours in the Recueil des Harangues prononcées par MM. de l’Académie Françoise (1764, vol. 6, p. 176, 2nd ed.). The passage in question, with the interpolated words in square brackets, is as follows:—Ces choses (les connoissances, les faits et les découvertes) sont bors de l’homme, [le style est l’homme méme] le style ne peut done ni s’enlever, ni se transporter, ni s’altérer: s’il est éleve, noble, sublime, l’auteur sera également admiré dans tous les temps.Roger Alexandre (Musée de la Conversation, p. 497) appears to vouch for an existing impression (plaquette) of Buffon’s “Address,” printed in the same year (1753), in which the saying is given in the form Le style est l’homme méme; but for this solitary witness to the contrary—which I have been unable to verify—I should have concluded that the phrase was never said at all, and with reason: (1) from its absence in the official publication above mentioned; (2) from its absence in the Correspondance of (J. M. von) Grimm, who, writing within a week of the event (1 September 1753), reports the salient points of the “Discourse” almost verbatim, and yet nowhere makes an allusion to the celebrated mot. Besides, it is hardly imaginable that Buffon, with the extraordinary care that he habitually bestowed upon his published works in the way of accuracy, polish, and effect—his Époques de la Nature was copied and re-copied eleven times before being handed to the printer—would have allowed the official report of his famous “Discourse” to have appeared in print minus the great saying which made its fortune, had he ever said it. Larousse, in his Dictionnaire Universelle (s.v. STYLE), accounts for the quotation as a necessary “deduction” from the passage in question, and I wholly agree with him. The sentence, as usually quoted, was never said at all.
• Source: Wikiquote: "Writing style" (Quotes, Classical and Foreign Quotations:
Quotes reported in: W. F. H. King, ed., Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), nos. 277, 333, 447, 1760, 1844, 3025; 1978, 2890; 356, 837, 1648, 1843, 1978, 2431; 1979; 2113; 275; 679; 133, 151, 2879; 1355; 2366; 542, 1421, 1975; 1638, 1693; 3075)
• Celebrated aphorism, supposed to have been enunciated by Buffon in his no less celebrated Discours de Réception on admission to the French Academy, 25 August 1753. It is one of those numerous cases where one has to record not what the speaker said, so much as what he ought to have said, and the precise form of the phrase is still undetermined. The quotation merely represents the tradition of the vulgar, rejected by the critics in favour either of Le style est de l’homme même, of the Nouvelle Biographie Générale (Didot), s.v. “Buffon”; or of Le style est l’homme même of Richard’s edition of Buffon (Paris, 1842), vol. i. p. 10. The unfortunate circumstance militating against the authenticity of the famous axiom in any shape, is its absence in the official report of the Discours in the Recueil des Harangues prononcées par MM. de l’Académie Françoise (1764, vol. 6, p. 176, 2nd ed.). The passage in question, with the interpolated words in square brackets, is as follows:—Ces choses (les connoissances, les faits et les découvertes) sont bors de l’homme, [le style est l’homme méme] le style ne peut done ni s’enlever, ni se transporter, ni s’altérer: s’il est éleve, noble, sublime, l’auteur sera également admiré dans tous les temps.Roger Alexandre (Musée de la Conversation, p. 497) appears to vouch for an existing impression (plaquette) of Buffon’s “Address,” printed in the same year (1753), in which the saying is given in the form Le style est l’homme méme; but for this solitary witness to the contrary—which I have been unable to verify—I should have concluded that the phrase was never said at all, and with reason: (1) from its absence in the official publication above mentioned; (2) from its absence in the Correspondance of (J. M. von) Grimm, who, writing within a week of the event (1 September 1753), reports the salient points of the “Discourse” almost verbatim, and yet nowhere makes an allusion to the celebrated mot. Besides, it is hardly imaginable that Buffon, with the extraordinary care that he habitually bestowed upon his published works in the way of accuracy, polish, and effect—his Époques de la Nature was copied and re-copied eleven times before being handed to the printer—would have allowed the official report of his famous “Discourse” to have appeared in print minus the great saying which made its fortune, had he ever said it. Larousse, in his Dictionnaire Universelle (s.v. STYLE), accounts for the quotation as a necessary “deduction” from the passage in question, and I wholly agree with him. The sentence, as usually quoted, was never said at all.
• Source: Wikiquote: "Writing style" (Quotes, Classical and Foreign Quotations:
Quotes reported in: W. F. H. King, ed., Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), nos. 277, 333, 447, 1760, 1844, 3025; 1978, 2890; 356, 837, 1648, 1843, 1978, 2431; 1979; 2113; 275; 679; 133, 151, 2879; 1355; 2366; 542, 1421, 1975; 1638, 1693; 3075)
“The style shows the man.”
— Unknown
# Writing & Art
U
Context: • Honoré de Balzac letter to Madame Zulma Carraud, 2 July 1832.
• Source: Wikiquote: "Writing" (B)
• Source: Wikiquote: "Writing" (B)
“I am a galley slave to pen and ink.”
— Unknown
Art
Occupations
WritingU
Context: • Neil Gaiman, Introduction to An Invocation of Incuriosity in Trigger Warning (2015), , p. xxxii
• Source: Wikiquote: "Writing" (G)
• Source: Wikiquote: "Writing" (G)
“Writers live in houses other people built.”
— Unknown
U
Context: • Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita (1955), p. 1
• Source: Wikiquote: "Writing" (N)
• Source: Wikiquote: "Writing" (N)
“You can always count on a murderer for fancy prose style.”
— Unknown
U
Context: • Thomas Carlyle, Richter (1827).
• Source: Wikiquote: "Writing" (C)
• Source: Wikiquote: "Writing" (C)
“A well-written Life is almost as rare as a well-spent one.”
— Unknown
U
Context: • Tom Heehler, The Well-Spoken Thesaurus.
• Source: Wikiquote: "Writing" (H)
• Source: Wikiquote: "Writing" (H)
“Good writers indulge their audience; great writers know better.”
— Unknown
# Writing & Occupations
U
Context: • Lewis Carroll, Roger Lancelyn Green (1989). The Selected Letters of Lewis Carroll, p.10, Springer
• Source: Wikiquote: "Writing" (C)
• Source: Wikiquote: "Writing" (C)
“The proper definition of a man is an animal that writes letters.”
— Unknown
U
Context: • Voices of Vision: Creators of Science Fiction and Fantasy, page 182 https://books.google.com/books/about/Voices_of_Vision.html?id=Nu4vUZT-7ToC&hl=en
• Source: Wikiquote: "Writing" (D)
• Source: Wikiquote: "Writing" (D)
“The trick is not becoming a writer. The trick is staying a writer.”
— Unknown
U
Context: • Stan Lee, "Stan Lee Writes Himself Into His New Venture", by Brook Barnes, The New York Times, (July 23, 2010).
• Source: Wikiquote: "Writing" (L)
• Source: Wikiquote: "Writing" (L)
“A writer is like God. He can destroy empires, create new universes.”
— Unknown
U
Context: • Mary L. Bradford, "I, Eye, Aye: A Personal Essay on Personal Essays" (1978)
• Source: Wikiquote: "Writing" (B)
• Source: Wikiquote: "Writing" (B)
“The personal essay is vulnerable. It cannot stand upon its footnotes.”
— Unknown
U
Context: • Eleanor Arnason, The Scrivener (2014), reprinted in Rich Horton (ed.) The Year’s Best Science Fiction & Fantasy 2015 (p. 54)
• Source: Wikiquote: "Writing" (A)
• Source: Wikiquote: "Writing" (A)
“Writing is a terrible way to make a living, almost as bad as criticism.”
— Unknown
More Quotes
U
Context: • Quintilian 9, 3, 97
• As a legal formula, it exactly corresponds with the Scotch Not proven, and in this sense is used by Cicero, pro Cluentio 28, 76.
• Source: Wikiquote: "Writing style" (Quotes, Classical and Foreign Quotations:
Quotes reported in: W. F. H. King, ed., Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), nos. 277, 333, 447, 1760, 1844, 3025; 1978, 2890; 356, 837, 1648, 1843, 1978, 2431; 1979; 2113; 275; 679; 133, 151, 2879; 1355; 2366; 542, 1421, 1975; 1638, 1693; 3075, Obscurity of style)
• As a legal formula, it exactly corresponds with the Scotch Not proven, and in this sense is used by Cicero, pro Cluentio 28, 76.
• Source: Wikiquote: "Writing style" (Quotes, Classical and Foreign Quotations:
Quotes reported in: W. F. H. King, ed., Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), nos. 277, 333, 447, 1760, 1844, 3025; 1978, 2890; 356, 837, 1648, 1843, 1978, 2431; 1979; 2113; 275; 679; 133, 151, 2879; 1355; 2366; 542, 1421, 1975; 1638, 1693; 3075, Obscurity of style)
“It is not evident.”
— Unknown
U
Context: • Source: Wikiquote: "Writing style" (Quotes, Classical and Foreign Quotations:
Quotes reported in: W. F. H. King, ed., Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), nos. 277, 333, 447, 1760, 1844, 3025; 1978, 2890; 356, 837, 1648, 1843, 1978, 2431; 1979; 2113; 275; 679; 133, 151, 2879; 1355; 2366; 542, 1421, 1975; 1638, 1693; 3075, Obscurity of style)
Quotes reported in: W. F. H. King, ed., Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), nos. 277, 333, 447, 1760, 1844, 3025; 1978, 2890; 356, 837, 1648, 1843, 1978, 2431; 1979; 2113; 275; 679; 133, 151, 2879; 1355; 2366; 542, 1421, 1975; 1638, 1693; 3075, Obscurity of style)
“Non liquet.”
— Unknown
U
Context: • Source: Wikiquote: "Writing style" (Quotes, Classical and Foreign Quotations:
Quotes reported in: W. F. H. King, ed., Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), nos. 277, 333, 447, 1760, 1844, 3025; 1978, 2890; 356, 837, 1648, 1843, 1978, 2431; 1979; 2113; 275; 679; 133, 151, 2879; 1355; 2366; 542, 1421, 1975; 1638, 1693; 3075, Polished style)
Quotes reported in: W. F. H. King, ed., Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), nos. 277, 333, 447, 1760, 1844, 3025; 1978, 2890; 356, 837, 1648, 1843, 1978, 2431; 1979; 2113; 275; 679; 133, 151, 2879; 1355; 2366; 542, 1421, 1975; 1638, 1693; 3075, Polished style)
“Ore rotundo.”
— Unknown
U
Context: • Horace, Ars Poetica 323
• Polished diction: flowing periods.
• Source: Wikiquote: "Writing style" (Quotes, Classical and Foreign Quotations:
Quotes reported in: W. F. H. King, ed., Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), nos. 277, 333, 447, 1760, 1844, 3025; 1978, 2890; 356, 837, 1648, 1843, 1978, 2431; 1979; 2113; 275; 679; 133, 151, 2879; 1355; 2366; 542, 1421, 1975; 1638, 1693; 3075, Polished style)
• Polished diction: flowing periods.
• Source: Wikiquote: "Writing style" (Quotes, Classical and Foreign Quotations:
Quotes reported in: W. F. H. King, ed., Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), nos. 277, 333, 447, 1760, 1844, 3025; 1978, 2890; 356, 837, 1648, 1843, 1978, 2431; 1979; 2113; 275; 679; 133, 151, 2879; 1355; 2366; 542, 1421, 1975; 1638, 1693; 3075, Polished style)
“In well-turned phrase.”
— Unknown
U
Context: • Adespotos
• Celebrated aphorism, supposed to have been enunciated by Buffon in his no less celebrated Discours de Réception on admission to the French Academy, 25 August 1753. It is one of those numerous cases where one has to record not what the speaker said, so much as what he ought to have said, and the precise form of the phrase is still undetermined. The quotation merely represents the tradition of the vulgar, rejected by the critics in favour either of Le style est de l’homme même, of the Nouvelle Biographie Générale (Didot), s.v. “Buffon”; or of Le style est l’homme même of Richard’s edition of Buffon (Paris, 1842), vol. i. p. 10. The unfortunate circumstance militating against the authenticity of the famous axiom in any shape, is its absence in the official report of the Discours in the Recueil des Harangues prononcées par MM. de l’Académie Françoise (1764, vol. 6, p. 176, 2nd ed.). The passage in question, with the interpolated words in square brackets, is as follows:—Ces choses (les connoissances, les faits et les découvertes) sont bors de l’homme, [le style est l’homme méme] le style ne peut done ni s’enlever, ni se transporter, ni s’altérer: s’il est éleve, noble, sublime, l’auteur sera également admiré dans tous les temps.Roger Alexandre (Musée de la Conversation, p. 497) appears to vouch for an existing impression (plaquette) of Buffon’s “Address,” printed in the same year (1753), in which the saying is given in the form Le style est l’homme méme; but for this solitary witness to the contrary—which I have been unable to verify—I should have concluded that the phrase was never said at all, and with reason: (1) from its absence in the official publication above mentioned; (2) from its absence in the Correspondance of (J. M. von) Grimm, who, writing within a week of the event (1 September 1753), reports the salient points of the “Discourse” almost verbatim, and yet nowhere makes an allusion to the celebrated mot. Besides, it is hardly imaginable that Buffon, with the extraordinary care that he habitually bestowed upon his published works in the way of accuracy, polish, and effect—his Époques de la Nature was copied and re-copied eleven times before being handed to the printer—would have allowed the official report of his famous “Discourse” to have appeared in print minus the great saying which made its fortune, had he ever said it. Larousse, in his Dictionnaire Universelle (s.v. STYLE), accounts for the quotation as a necessary “deduction” from the passage in question, and I wholly agree with him. The sentence, as usually quoted, was never said at all.
• Source: Wikiquote: "Writing style" (Quotes, Classical and Foreign Quotations:
Quotes reported in: W. F. H. King, ed., Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), nos. 277, 333, 447, 1760, 1844, 3025; 1978, 2890; 356, 837, 1648, 1843, 1978, 2431; 1979; 2113; 275; 679; 133, 151, 2879; 1355; 2366; 542, 1421, 1975; 1638, 1693; 3075)
• Celebrated aphorism, supposed to have been enunciated by Buffon in his no less celebrated Discours de Réception on admission to the French Academy, 25 August 1753. It is one of those numerous cases where one has to record not what the speaker said, so much as what he ought to have said, and the precise form of the phrase is still undetermined. The quotation merely represents the tradition of the vulgar, rejected by the critics in favour either of Le style est de l’homme même, of the Nouvelle Biographie Générale (Didot), s.v. “Buffon”; or of Le style est l’homme même of Richard’s edition of Buffon (Paris, 1842), vol. i. p. 10. The unfortunate circumstance militating against the authenticity of the famous axiom in any shape, is its absence in the official report of the Discours in the Recueil des Harangues prononcées par MM. de l’Académie Françoise (1764, vol. 6, p. 176, 2nd ed.). The passage in question, with the interpolated words in square brackets, is as follows:—Ces choses (les connoissances, les faits et les découvertes) sont bors de l’homme, [le style est l’homme méme] le style ne peut done ni s’enlever, ni se transporter, ni s’altérer: s’il est éleve, noble, sublime, l’auteur sera également admiré dans tous les temps.Roger Alexandre (Musée de la Conversation, p. 497) appears to vouch for an existing impression (plaquette) of Buffon’s “Address,” printed in the same year (1753), in which the saying is given in the form Le style est l’homme méme; but for this solitary witness to the contrary—which I have been unable to verify—I should have concluded that the phrase was never said at all, and with reason: (1) from its absence in the official publication above mentioned; (2) from its absence in the Correspondance of (J. M. von) Grimm, who, writing within a week of the event (1 September 1753), reports the salient points of the “Discourse” almost verbatim, and yet nowhere makes an allusion to the celebrated mot. Besides, it is hardly imaginable that Buffon, with the extraordinary care that he habitually bestowed upon his published works in the way of accuracy, polish, and effect—his Époques de la Nature was copied and re-copied eleven times before being handed to the printer—would have allowed the official report of his famous “Discourse” to have appeared in print minus the great saying which made its fortune, had he ever said it. Larousse, in his Dictionnaire Universelle (s.v. STYLE), accounts for the quotation as a necessary “deduction” from the passage in question, and I wholly agree with him. The sentence, as usually quoted, was never said at all.
• Source: Wikiquote: "Writing style" (Quotes, Classical and Foreign Quotations:
Quotes reported in: W. F. H. King, ed., Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), nos. 277, 333, 447, 1760, 1844, 3025; 1978, 2890; 356, 837, 1648, 1843, 1978, 2431; 1979; 2113; 275; 679; 133, 151, 2879; 1355; 2366; 542, 1421, 1975; 1638, 1693; 3075)
“The style shows the man.”
— Unknown
U
Context: • Ovid, Tristia 2, 259
• Said of the “Annals” of Rome, as a piece of reading.
• Source: Wikiquote: "Writing style" (Quotes, Classical and Foreign Quotations:
Quotes reported in: W. F. H. King, ed., Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), nos. 277, 333, 447, 1760, 1844, 3025; 1978, 2890; 356, 837, 1648, 1843, 1978, 2431; 1979; 2113; 275; 679; 133, 151, 2879; 1355; 2366; 542, 1421, 1975; 1638, 1693; 3075, Unpolished style)
• Said of the “Annals” of Rome, as a piece of reading.
• Source: Wikiquote: "Writing style" (Quotes, Classical and Foreign Quotations:
Quotes reported in: W. F. H. King, ed., Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), nos. 277, 333, 447, 1760, 1844, 3025; 1978, 2890; 356, 837, 1648, 1843, 1978, 2431; 1979; 2113; 275; 679; 133, 151, 2879; 1355; 2366; 542, 1421, 1975; 1638, 1693; 3075, Unpolished style)
“Nothing can be more rugged.”
— Unknown
U
Context: • Source: Wikiquote: "Writing style" (Quotes, Classical and Foreign Quotations:
Quotes reported in: W. F. H. King, ed., Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), nos. 277, 333, 447, 1760, 1844, 3025; 1978, 2890; 356, 837, 1648, 1843, 1978, 2431; 1979; 2113; 275; 679; 133, 151, 2879; 1355; 2366; 542, 1421, 1975; 1638, 1693; 3075, Polished style)
Quotes reported in: W. F. H. King, ed., Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), nos. 277, 333, 447, 1760, 1844, 3025; 1978, 2890; 356, 837, 1648, 1843, 1978, 2431; 1979; 2113; 275; 679; 133, 151, 2879; 1355; 2366; 542, 1421, 1975; 1638, 1693; 3075, Polished style)
“Limæ labor ac mora.”
— Unknown
U
Context: • Virgil, Aeneid 6, 100
• The response of the Cumæan Sibyl to Æneas.
• Source: Wikiquote: "Writing style" (Quotes, Classical and Foreign Quotations:
Quotes reported in: W. F. H. King, ed., Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), nos. 277, 333, 447, 1760, 1844, 3025; 1978, 2890; 356, 837, 1648, 1843, 1978, 2431; 1979; 2113; 275; 679; 133, 151, 2879; 1355; 2366; 542, 1421, 1975; 1638, 1693; 3075, Obscurity of style)
• The response of the Cumæan Sibyl to Æneas.
• Source: Wikiquote: "Writing style" (Quotes, Classical and Foreign Quotations:
Quotes reported in: W. F. H. King, ed., Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), nos. 277, 333, 447, 1760, 1844, 3025; 1978, 2890; 356, 837, 1648, 1843, 1978, 2431; 1979; 2113; 275; 679; 133, 151, 2879; 1355; 2366; 542, 1421, 1975; 1638, 1693; 3075, Obscurity of style)
“Cloaking the truth in mystery.”
— Unknown
U
Context: • Columella 10, præf. § 4
• Cp. Arena sine calce. Suetonius, Caligula 53.—“Sand without lime”.Said by Caligula of the Tragedies of Seneca, from their unconnected character; and applicable to any desultory, disjointed performance.
• Source: Wikiquote: "Writing style" (Quotes, Classical and Foreign Quotations:
Quotes reported in: W. F. H. King, ed., Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), nos. 277, 333, 447, 1760, 1844, 3025; 1978, 2890; 356, 837, 1648, 1843, 1978, 2431; 1979; 2113; 275; 679; 133, 151, 2879; 1355; 2366; 542, 1421, 1975; 1638, 1693; 3075, Confused style)
• Cp. Arena sine calce. Suetonius, Caligula 53.—“Sand without lime”.Said by Caligula of the Tragedies of Seneca, from their unconnected character; and applicable to any desultory, disjointed performance.
• Source: Wikiquote: "Writing style" (Quotes, Classical and Foreign Quotations:
Quotes reported in: W. F. H. King, ed., Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), nos. 277, 333, 447, 1760, 1844, 3025; 1978, 2890; 356, 837, 1648, 1843, 1978, 2431; 1979; 2113; 275; 679; 133, 151, 2879; 1355; 2366; 542, 1421, 1975; 1638, 1693; 3075, Confused style)
“You can’t make a rope of sand.”
— Unknown
U
Context: • Source: Wikiquote: "Writing style" (Quotes, Classical and Foreign Quotations:
Quotes reported in: W. F. H. King, ed., Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), nos. 277, 333, 447, 1760, 1844, 3025; 1978, 2890; 356, 837, 1648, 1843, 1978, 2431; 1979; 2113; 275; 679; 133, 151, 2879; 1355; 2366; 542, 1421, 1975; 1638, 1693; 3075, Obscurity of style)
Quotes reported in: W. F. H. King, ed., Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), nos. 277, 333, 447, 1760, 1844, 3025; 1978, 2890; 356, 837, 1648, 1843, 1978, 2431; 1979; 2113; 275; 679; 133, 151, 2879; 1355; 2366; 542, 1421, 1975; 1638, 1693; 3075, Obscurity of style)
“Obscuris vera involvens.”
— Unknown
U
Context: • Honoré de Balzac letter to Madame Zulma Carraud, 2 July 1832.
• Source: Wikiquote: "Writing" (B)
• Source: Wikiquote: "Writing" (B)
“I am a galley slave to pen and ink.”
— Unknown
U
Context: • Source: Wikiquote: "Writing style" (Quotes, Classical and Foreign Quotations:
Quotes reported in: W. F. H. King, ed., Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), nos. 277, 333, 447, 1760, 1844, 3025; 1978, 2890; 356, 837, 1648, 1843, 1978, 2431; 1979; 2113; 275; 679; 133, 151, 2879; 1355; 2366; 542, 1421, 1975; 1638, 1693; 3075, Unpolished style)
Quotes reported in: W. F. H. King, ed., Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), nos. 277, 333, 447, 1760, 1844, 3025; 1978, 2890; 356, 837, 1648, 1843, 1978, 2431; 1979; 2113; 275; 679; 133, 151, 2879; 1355; 2366; 542, 1421, 1975; 1638, 1693; 3075, Unpolished style)
“Nihil est hirsutius illis.”
— Unknown
U
Context: • Source: Wikiquote: "Writing style" (Quotes, Classical and Foreign Quotations:
Quotes reported in: W. F. H. King, ed., Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), nos. 277, 333, 447, 1760, 1844, 3025; 1978, 2890; 356, 837, 1648, 1843, 1978, 2431; 1979; 2113; 275; 679; 133, 151, 2879; 1355; 2366; 542, 1421, 1975; 1638, 1693; 3075)
Quotes reported in: W. F. H. King, ed., Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), nos. 277, 333, 447, 1760, 1844, 3025; 1978, 2890; 356, 837, 1648, 1843, 1978, 2431; 1979; 2113; 275; 679; 133, 151, 2879; 1355; 2366; 542, 1421, 1975; 1638, 1693; 3075)
“Le style c’est l’homme.”
— Unknown
U
Context: • Juvenal 6, 181
• Descriptive of a writer whose strength lies in sarcasm.
• Source: Wikiquote: "Writing style" (Quotes, Classical and Foreign Quotations:
Quotes reported in: W. F. H. King, ed., Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), nos. 277, 333, 447, 1760, 1844, 3025; 1978, 2890; 356, 837, 1648, 1843, 1978, 2431; 1979; 2113; 275; 679; 133, 151, 2879; 1355; 2366; 542, 1421, 1975; 1638, 1693; 3075, Caustic style)
• Descriptive of a writer whose strength lies in sarcasm.
• Source: Wikiquote: "Writing style" (Quotes, Classical and Foreign Quotations:
Quotes reported in: W. F. H. King, ed., Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), nos. 277, 333, 447, 1760, 1844, 3025; 1978, 2890; 356, 837, 1648, 1843, 1978, 2431; 1979; 2113; 275; 679; 133, 151, 2879; 1355; 2366; 542, 1421, 1975; 1638, 1693; 3075, Caustic style)
“He has in him more aloes than honey.”
— Unknown
U
Context: • Source: Wikiquote: "Writing style" (Quotes, Classical and Foreign Quotations:
Quotes reported in: W. F. H. King, ed., Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), nos. 277, 333, 447, 1760, 1844, 3025; 1978, 2890; 356, 837, 1648, 1843, 1978, 2431; 1979; 2113; 275; 679; 133, 151, 2879; 1355; 2366; 542, 1421, 1975; 1638, 1693; 3075, Caustic style)
Quotes reported in: W. F. H. King, ed., Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), nos. 277, 333, 447, 1760, 1844, 3025; 1978, 2890; 356, 837, 1648, 1843, 1978, 2431; 1979; 2113; 275; 679; 133, 151, 2879; 1355; 2366; 542, 1421, 1975; 1638, 1693; 3075, Caustic style)
“Plus aloes quam mellis habet.”
— Unknown
U
Context: • Source: Wikiquote: "Writing style" (Quotes, Classical and Foreign Quotations:
Quotes reported in: W. F. H. King, ed., Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), nos. 277, 333, 447, 1760, 1844, 3025; 1978, 2890; 356, 837, 1648, 1843, 1978, 2431; 1979; 2113; 275; 679; 133, 151, 2879; 1355; 2366; 542, 1421, 1975; 1638, 1693; 3075, Confused style)
Quotes reported in: W. F. H. King, ed., Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), nos. 277, 333, 447, 1760, 1844, 3025; 1978, 2890; 356, 837, 1648, 1843, 1978, 2431; 1979; 2113; 275; 679; 133, 151, 2879; 1355; 2366; 542, 1421, 1975; 1638, 1693; 3075, Confused style)
“Arenæ funis effici non potest.”
— Unknown
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Context: • Neil Gaiman, Introduction to An Invocation of Incuriosity in Trigger Warning (2015), , p. xxxii
• Source: Wikiquote: "Writing" (G)
• Source: Wikiquote: "Writing" (G)
“Writers live in houses other people built.”
— Unknown
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Context: • P. M. Quitard, Dictionnaire des Proverbes (Paris, 1842), p. 410
• Source: Wikiquote: "Writing style" (Quotes, Classical and Foreign Quotations:
Quotes reported in: W. F. H. King, ed., Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), nos. 277, 333, 447, 1760, 1844, 3025; 1978, 2890; 356, 837, 1648, 1843, 1978, 2431; 1979; 2113; 275; 679; 133, 151, 2879; 1355; 2366; 542, 1421, 1975; 1638, 1693; 3075, Obscurity of style)
• Source: Wikiquote: "Writing style" (Quotes, Classical and Foreign Quotations:
Quotes reported in: W. F. H. King, ed., Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), nos. 277, 333, 447, 1760, 1844, 3025; 1978, 2890; 356, 837, 1648, 1843, 1978, 2431; 1979; 2113; 275; 679; 133, 151, 2879; 1355; 2366; 542, 1421, 1975; 1638, 1693; 3075, Obscurity of style)
“What is not clear (intelligible) is not French.”
— Unknown
U
Context: • Persius 1, 106
• Said of insipid poetry, composed without care and labour.
• Source: Wikiquote: "Writing style" (Quotes, Classical and Foreign Quotations:
Quotes reported in: W. F. H. King, ed., Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), nos. 277, 333, 447, 1760, 1844, 3025; 1978, 2890; 356, 837, 1648, 1843, 1978, 2431; 1979; 2113; 275; 679; 133, 151, 2879; 1355; 2366; 542, 1421, 1975; 1638, 1693; 3075, Unpolished style)
• Said of insipid poetry, composed without care and labour.
• Source: Wikiquote: "Writing style" (Quotes, Classical and Foreign Quotations:
Quotes reported in: W. F. H. King, ed., Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), nos. 277, 333, 447, 1760, 1844, 3025; 1978, 2890; 356, 837, 1648, 1843, 1978, 2431; 1979; 2113; 275; 679; 133, 151, 2879; 1355; 2366; 542, 1421, 1975; 1638, 1693; 3075, Unpolished style)
“It does not smack of the desk, or bitten nails.”
— Unknown
U
Context: • Source: Wikiquote: "Writing style" (Quotes, Classical and Foreign Quotations:
Quotes reported in: W. F. H. King, ed., Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), nos. 277, 333, 447, 1760, 1844, 3025; 1978, 2890; 356, 837, 1648, 1843, 1978, 2431; 1979; 2113; 275; 679; 133, 151, 2879; 1355; 2366; 542, 1421, 1975; 1638, 1693; 3075, Ornate style)
Quotes reported in: W. F. H. King, ed., Classical and Foreign Quotations, 3rd ed. (1904), nos. 277, 333, 447, 1760, 1844, 3025; 1978, 2890; 356, 837, 1648, 1843, 1978, 2431; 1979; 2113; 275; 679; 133, 151, 2879; 1355; 2366; 542, 1421, 1975; 1638, 1693; 3075, Ornate style)
“Ornari res ipsa negat, contenta docere.”
— Unknown
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