Adjectives Quotes

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  A man's character may be learned from the adjectives which he habitually uses in conversation.

  Mark Twain

  Inspirational, Leadership, Character

  Mark Twain (2014). “Mark Twain on Common Sense: Timeless Advice and Words of Wisdom from America's Most-Revered Humorist”, p.50, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• Atticus told me to delete the adjectives and I'd have the facts.

  Harper Lee

  Tkam, Jem And Scout, Facts

  Harper Lee (1960). “TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD”

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• Adjectives are the sugar of literature and adverbs the salt.

  Henry James

  Literature, Sugar, Salt

  Henry James (2016). “Henry James: Autobiographies: A Small Boy and Others / Notes of a Son and Brother / The Middle Years / Other Writings: Library of America #274”, p.1142, Library of America

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• If the noun is good and the verb is strong, you almost never need an adjective.

  J. Anthony Lukas

  Strong, Writing, Nouns

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• Every adjective and adverb is worth five cents. Every verb is worth fifty cents.

  Mary Oliver

  Adjectives And Adverbs, Fifty, Cents

  Mary Oliver (1994). “A Poetry Handbook”, p.90, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• The day you stop being compassionate, your adjective of human drops!

  Mehmet Murat Ildan

  Compassionate, Humans

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• I notice that you use plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English - it is the modern way and the best way. Stick to it; don't let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in.

  Mark Twain

  Flower, Writing, Simple

  Mark Twain (2016). “The Wit and Wisdom of Mark Twain”, p.65, Chartwell

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• What is an adjective? Nouns name the world. Verbs activate the names. Adjectives come from somewhere else. The word adjective (epitheton in Greek) is itself an adjective meaning 'placed on top', 'added', 'appended', 'foreign'. Adjectives seem fairly innocent additions, but look again. These small imported mechanisms are in charge of attaching everything in the world to its place in particularity. They are the latches of being.

  Anne Carson

  Somewhere Else, Names, Greek

  Anne Carson (1999). “Autobiography of Red: A Novel in Verse”, Vintage

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• The adjective is the banana peel of the parts of speech.

  Clifton Fadiman

  Inspiration, Vocabulary, Speech

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• To write or even speak English is not a science but an art. There are no reliable words. Whoever writes English is involved in a struggle that never lets up even for a sentence. He is struggling against vagueness, against obscurity, against the lure of the decorative adjective, against the encroachment of Latin and Greek, and, above all, against the worn-out phrases and dead metaphors with which the language is cluttered up.

  George Orwell

  Art, Latin, Struggle

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• The adjective is the enemy of the noun. Variant: The adjective is the enemy of the substantive.

  Voltaire

  Writing, Enemy, Nouns

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• One day the Nouns were clustered in the street.
  An Adjective walked by, with her dark beauty.
  The Nouns were struck, moved, changed.
  The next day a Verb drove up, and created the Sentence.

  Kenneth Koch

  Dark, Next Day, One Day

  Kenneth Koch (2012). “On the Great Atlantic Rainway: Selected Poems 1950-1988”, p.75, Knopf

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• I notice that you use plain, simple language, short words and brief sentences. That is the way to write English―it is the modern way and the best way. Stick to it; don't let fluff and flowers and verbosity creep in. When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don't mean utterly, but kill most of them―then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are wide apart. An adjective habit, or a wordy, diffuse, flowery habit, once fastened upon a person, is as hard to get rid of as any other vice.

  Mark Twain

  Flower, Writing, Mean

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• The adjective hasn't been built that can pull a weak or inaccurate noun out of a tight place.

  William Strunk, Jr.

  Nouns, Weak, Built

  WILLIAM STRUNK, JR. (1959). “THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE”

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• When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don't mean utterly, but kill most of them--then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are close together. They give strength when they are far apart.

  Mark Twain

  Writing, Mean, Plain Language

  Mark Twain, Michael Patrick Hearn (1981). “The annotated Huckleberry Finn: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”, Random House Value Pub

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• They've a temper, some of them - particularly verbs, they're the proudest - adjectives you can do anything with, but not verbs.

  Lewis Carroll

  Verbs, Through The Looking Glass, Language

  Lewis Carroll “Alice in Wonderland”, W. W. Norton & Company

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• The road to hell is paved with adverbs.

  Stephen King

  Movie, Writing, Sisterhood

  FaceBook post by Stephen King from Feb 06, 2013

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• I get imaginative with a mouth full of adjectives,
  A brain full of adverbs, and a box full of laxatives,
  Shittin' on rappers, causin' hospital accidents.

  Eminem

  Rap, Hip Hop, Brain

  Song: Still Don't Give a Fuck

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• Language rarely lies. It can reveal the insincerity of a writer's claims simply through a grating adjective or an inflated phrase. We come upon a frenzy of words and suspect it hides a paucity of feeling.

  Irving Howe

  Lying, Feelings, Phrases

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• The road to Hell is paved with unbought stuffed dogs.

  Ernest Hemingway

  Dog, Writing, Sisterhood

  Ernest Hemingway (2016). “The Sun Also Rises”, p.37, Hamilton Books

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• To write or even speak English is not a science but an art. There are no reliable words.... Whoever writes English is involved in a struggle that never lets up even for a sentence.

  George Orwell

  Art, Struggle, Writing

  George Orwell (1968). “The Collected Essays, Journalism, and Letters of George Orwell: As I please, 1943-1945”

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• I think my mistakes were kind of common - leaning on cliches and adjectives in the place of clear, vivid writing. But at least I knew how to spell, which seems to be a rarity these days.

  Dick Schaap

  Mistake, Writing, Thinking

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• In English we must use adjectives to distinguish the different kinds of love for which the ancients had distinct names.

  Mortimer Adler

  Names, Different, Use

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• You expect far too much of a first sentence. Think of it as analagous to a good country breakfast: what we want is something simple, but nourishing to the imagination. Hold the philosophy, hold the adjectives, just give us a plain subject and verb and perhaps a wholesome, nonfattening adverb or two.

  Larry McMurtry

  Country, Philosophy, Simple

  Larry McMurtry (2010). “Some Can Whistle”, p.6, Simon and Schuster

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• To think straight, it is advisable to expect all qualities and attributes, adjectives, and so on to refer to at least two sets of interactions in time.

  Gregory Bateson

  Thinking, Two, Quality

  "Mind and Nature - a Necessary Unity". Book by Gregory Bateson, new edition, 1988.

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