Anyone who finds himself putting down several commas close to one another should reflect that he is making himself disagreeable.

- Henry Watson Fowler

After all, it is an ancient and valuable right of the English people to turn their nouns into verbs when they are so minded.

- Henry Watson Fowler

The purpose of paragraphing is to give the reader a rest. The writer is saying . . . : Have you got that? If so, I'll go to the next point.

- Henry Watson Fowler

The writer's Queen Victoria is his public, and he would do well to keep a bust of the old Queen on his desk with the legend "We are not amused" hangi…

- Henry Watson Fowler

We tell our thoughts, like our children, to put on their hats and coats before they go out.

- Henry Watson Fowler

Any one who wishes to become a good writer should endeavour, before he allows himself to be tempted by the more showy qualities, to be direct, simple…

- Henry Watson Fowler

Those who are addicted to the phrase "to use a vulgarism" expect to achieve the feat of being at once vulgar and superior to vulgarity.

- Henry Watson Fowler

It need hardly be said that shortness is a merit in words.

- Henry Watson Fowler

Prefer the familiar word to the far-fetched. Prefer the concrete word to the abstract. Prefer the single word to the circumlocution. Prefer the short…

- Henry Watson Fowler