Figures of Speech Quotes

“A figure is an unusual choice. Robert Frost claimed that his choosing the road less taken made all the difference. Almost all of us will be taking roads more frequently travelled than Frost's, but they may still be among the less travelled.”
― Arthur Quinn, Figures of Speech: 60 Ways to Turn a Phrase

“Caesar seems to have omitted his conjunction to speed things up; he is emphasizing how quickly the conquest of a place follows from its being sighted by a great and ambitious general. Lincoln's omission is more subtle—or so it seems to me. Usually the items on a list are different but related things: eggs, butter, cheese. Sometimes they achieve a unity in which their distinctiveness is lost to all but the analytic mind, a good cheese omelet. Or perhaps we might even decide that they are but manifestations or expressions of the same thing. Lincoln would have us see these three aspects of government as constituting an inseparable whole. The asyndeton helps him do this.”
― Arthur Quinn, Figures of Speech: 60 Ways to Turn a Phrase

“Style, someone said, is like a frog; you can dissect the thing, but it somehow dies in the process.”
― Arthur Quinn, Figures of Speech: 60 Ways to Turn a Phrase