The H-bomb rather favors small nations that doesn't as yet possess it; they feel slightly more free to jostle other nations, having discovered that a country can stick its tongue out quite far these days without provoking war, so horrible are war's consequences.

Shocking writing is like murder: the questions the jury must decide are the questions of motive and intent.

Commas in The New Yorker fall with the precision of knives in a circus act, outlining the victim.

Americans are willing to go to enormous trouble and expense defending their principles with arms, very little trouble and expense advocating them with words. Temperamentally we are ready to die for certain principles (or, in the case of overripe adults, send youngsters to die), but we show little inclination to advertise the reasons for dying.

A breezy style is often the work of an egocentric, the person who imagines that everything that pops into his head is of general interest and that uninhibited prose creates high spirits and carries the day.

The critic leaves at curtain fall To find, in starting to review it, He scarcely saw the play at all For starting to review it.

English usage is sometimes more than mere taste, judgment and education - sometimes it's sheer luck, like getting across the street.