A powerful agent is the right word: it lights the reader's way and makes it plain.

Ah, if he could only die temporarily!

Rise early. It is the early bird that catches the worm. Don't be fooled by this absurd law; I once knew a man who tried it. He got up at sunrise and a horse bit him.

...many foolish persons, wanderers from other parts, have the vain fashion of graving their names and the obscure places whence they come, upon its stones, which is silly and marketh the doer for a fool.

What is the real function, the essential function, the supreme function, of language? Isn't it merely to convey ideas and emotions? Certainly. Then if we can do it with words of fonetic brevity and compactness, why keep the present cumbersome forms?

I'm merely running some errands. This is now off the record.

When a man's dog turns against hime, it is time for his wife to pack her trunk and go home to mamma.