Good Prose Is Like a Windowpane

Again, some quotations that caught my eye. Most, though not all, are from A Word a Day.

Good prose is like a windowpane. -George Orwell, writer (1903-1950)

One of my greatest pleasures in writing has come from the thought that perhaps my work might annoy someone of comfortably pretentious position. Then comes the saddening realization that such people rarely read. -John Kenneth Galbraith, economist (1908-2006)

Ink is handicapped, in a way, because you can blow up a man with gunpowder in half a second, while it may take twenty years to blow him up with a book. But the gunpowder destroys itself along with its victim, while a book can keep on exploding for centuries. -Christopher Morley, writer (1890-1957)

I hope our wisdom will grow with our power, and teach us that the less we use our power the greater it will be. -Thomas Jefferson, third US president, architect and author (1743-1826)

Today I bent the truth to be kind, and I have no regret, for I am far surer of what is kind than I am of what is true. -Robert Brault, software developer, writer (1938- )

The man who views the world at 50 the same as he did at 20 has wasted 30 years of his life. -Muhammad Ali