on writing - wisdom on style

Style means the right word. The rest matters little.   - Jules Renard

A good style must, first of all, be clear. It must not be mean or above the dignity
of the subject. It must be appropriate.   - Aristotle 

If any man wishes to write in a clear style, let him be first clear in his thoughts;
and if any would write in a noble style, let him first possess a noble soul.
- Goethe 

The greatest possible mint of style is to make the words absolutely disappear
into the thought.   - Nathaniel Hawthorne

by Olivia Jeffries

[Of prime necessity is life: a style should live.

Style ought to prove that one believes in an idea; not only that one thinks it but
also feels it.

Strategy on the part of the good writer of prose consists of choosing his means
for stepping close to poetry but never stepping into it.  - Nietzsche]

In composing, as a general rule, run your pen through every other word you
have written; you have no idea what vigor it will give your style.
- Sydney Smith

The most durable thing in writing is style, and style is the most valuable
investment a writer can make with his time. It pays off slowly, your agent will
sneer at it, your publisher will misunderstand it, and it will take people you have
never heard of to convince them by slow degrees that the writer who puts his
individual mark on the way he writes will always pay off.
- Raymond Chandler

When we see a natural style we are quite amazed and delighted, because we
expected to see an author and find a man.   - Blaise Pascal

A good style should show no signs of effort. What is written should seem a
happy accident.   - W. Somerset Maugham