In his Philosophy of Style, Herbert Spencer gives two sentences to illustrate how the vague and general can be turned into the vivid and particular: In proportion as the manners, customs, and amusements of a nation are cruel and barbarous, the regulations of its penal code will be severe. In proportion as men delight in battles, bullfights, and combats of gladiators, will they punish by hanging, burning, and the rack.

The approach to style is by way of plainness, simplicity, orderliness, sincerity.

Rich, ornate prose is hard to digest, generally unwholesome, and sometimes nauseating.

None are so fallible as those who are sure they're right.

Never call a stomach a tummy without good reason.

A dash is a mark of separation stronger than a comma, less formal than a colon, and more relaxed than parentheses.

A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts.