Before using a fine word, make a place for it.

The idea of the nest in the bird's mind, where does it come from?

Liquid, flowing words are the choicest and the best, if language is regarded as music. But when it is considered as a picture, then there are rough words which are very telling, they make their mark.

Professional critics are incapable of distinguishing and appreciating either diamonds in the rough or gold in bars. They are traders, and in literature know only the coins that are current. Their critical lab has scales and weights, but neither crucible or touchstone.

We do not do well except when we know where the best is and when we are assured that we have touched it and hold its power within us.

Logic is to grammar what the sense of words is to their sound.

A fluent writer always seems more talented than he is. To write well, one needs a natural felicity and an acquired difficulty.