Make definite assertions. Avoid tame, colorless, hesitating, non-committal language.

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

Rather, very, little, pretty - these are the leeches that infest the pond of prose, sucking the blood of words. The constant use of the adjective little (except to indicate size) is particularly debilitating; we should all try to do a little better, we should all be very watchful of this rule, for it is a rather important one, and we are pretty sure to violate it now and then.

It is worse to be irresolute than to be wrong.

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.

Rewrite and revise. Do not be afraid to seize what you have and cut it to ribbons ... Good writing means good revising.

...when a sentence is made stronger, it usually becomes shorter. Thus, brevity is a by-product of vigor.