"Our modern attraction to short stories is not an accident of form; it is the sign of a real sense of fleetingness and fragility; it means that existence is only an impression, and, perhaps, only an illusion. A short story of to-day has the air of a dream; it has the irrevocable beauty of a falsehood; we get a glimpse of grey streets of London or red plains of India, as in an opium vision; we see people,—arresting people, with fiery and appealing faces. But when the story is ended, the people are ended. We have no instinct of anything ultimate and enduring behind the episodes. The moderns, in a word, describe life in short stories because they are possessed with the sentiment that life itself is an uncommonly short story, and perhaps not a true one."

"Anybody can write a short story—a bad one, I mean—who has industry and paper and time enough; but not everyone may hope to write even a bad novel. It is the length that kills."

"Quot pæne verba, tot sententiæ sunt; quot sensus, tot victoriæ."

"Like sick men’s dreams, when shadowy images appear, and nether head nor feet fit their respective forms."

"Almost every word is a sentence in itself, and every thought amounts to a demonstration."

"Ere sea, and land and heaven’s vault were made, Nature, throughout the globe, bore one aspect, Called chaos—a rude and undigested mass."

"Arenæ funis effici non potest."

"Difficilis optimi perfectio atque absolutio."

"The labour and tediousness of polishing (any work of art, poetry, painting, etc.) as though with a file."

"Plus aloes quam mellis habet."

"Oh yes! believe me, you must draw your pen Not once or twice, but o’er and o’er again Through what you’ve written, if you would entice The man that reads you once to read you twice, Not making popular applause your cue, But looking to fit audience, although few."

"Sumite materiam vestris, qui scribitis, æquam Viribus, et versate diu quid ferre recusent, Quid valeant humeri. Cui lecta potenter erit res, Nec facundia deseret hunc, nec lucidus ordo."

"He has in him more aloes than honey."

"Don’t force your powers unduly, if you aim at a graceful effect."

"Ne forçons point notre talent, Nous ne ferions rien avec grâce."

"Sæpe stilum vertas, iterum que digna legi sint Scripturus; neque te ut miretur turba labores, Contentus paucis lectoribus."

"Ornata hoc ipso, quod ornamenta neglexerant."

"Ornate for the very reason that ornament had been neglected."

"Est brevitate opus ut currat sententia."

"A felicitous thought is as clearly exprest, And true words are not wanting in which it is drest."

"Terseness there wants to make the thought ring clear."

"Ante mare, et tellus, et, quod tegit omnia cœlum, Unus erat toto nature vultus in orbe, Quem dixere Chaos; rudis indigestaque moles."

"You can’t make a rope of sand."

"Velut egri somnia, vanæ Fingentur species, ut nec pes, nec caput uni Reddatur formæ."

"Le secret d’ennuyer est celui de tout dire."

"The surest way of wearying your readers is to say everything that can be said on the subject."

"Occidit miseros crambe repetita magistros."

"Like warmed-up cabbage served at each repast, The repetition kills the wretch at last."

"Mine be the whetstone’s lot Which makes steel sharp, though cut itself will not. Although no writer, I may yet impart To writing folk the precepts of their art."

"Good authors, take a brother bard’s advice: Ponder your subject o’er not once or twice, And oft and oft consider if the weight You hope to lift be, or be not too great. Let but our theme be equal to our powers, Choice language, clear arrangement, both are ours."

"Ce que l'on concoit bien s’énonce clairement Et les mots pour le dire arrivent aisément."

"Perfection and finish of the highest kind is very hard to attain."

"Ore rotundo."

"Verba nitent phaleris, at nullas verba medullas Intus habent."

"The subject of itself is incompatible with an ornamental style, content if it is able to instruct."

"The words make a fine show, but they have no pith in them."

"That ought to be fine, for I don’t understand a word of it."

"Cela doit être beau, car je n’y comprends rien."

"Ornari res ipsa negat, contenta docere."

"Consuetudinem sermonis vocabo consensum eruditorum; sicut vivendi consensum bonorum."

"It is not evident."

"His obscure style took with the shallower pates, (Not with the serious Greeks who ask for facts): For nothing captivates your dull man more Than dark, involved, mysterious verbiage."

"Obscuris vera involvens."

"Decipimur specie recti; brevis esse laboro, Obscurus fio."

"Clarus ob obscuram linguam magis inter inanes Quamde graves inter Graios qui vera requirunt: Omnia enim stolidi magis admirantur amantque Inversis que sub verbis latitantia cernunt."

"We aim at the ideal, and fail. I try To be concise, and end in being obscure."

"Cloaking the truth in mystery."

"The practice of educated men is the best standard of language, just as the lives of the good are our pattern in morals."

"Le style c’est l’homme."

"Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it—whole-heartedly—and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings."