Usage is the only test. I prefer a phrase that is easy and unaffected to a phrase that is grammatical.
W. Somerset MaughamSome people read for instruction, which is praiseworthy, and some for pleasure, which is innocent, but not a few read from habit, and I suppose that this is neither innocent or praiseworthy. Of that lamentable company am I. Conversation after a time bores me, games tire me and my own thoughts, which we are told are the unfailing resource of a sensible man, have a tendency to run dry. Then I fly to my book as the opium-smoker to his pipe.
W. Somerset MaughamOf all the hokum with which this country [America] is riddled, the most odd is the common notion that it is free of class distinctions.
W. Somerset MaughamIt might be that to surrender to happiness was to accept defeat, but it was a defeat better than many victories.
W. Somerset Maugham