How to Speak and Write Correctly Quotes

“...[T]he three greatest works are those of Homer, Dante and Shakespeare.

These are closely followed by the works of Virgil and Milton.”
― Joseph Devlin, How To Speak And Write Correctly

“plural is generally formed from the singular by the addition of s or es.”
― Joseph Devlin, How to Speak and Write Correctly

“It is very easy to learn how to speak and write correctly, as for all purposes of ordinary conversation and communication,”
― Joseph Devlin, How to Speak and Write Correctly

“Shakespeare was not a scholar in the sense we regard the term to-day, yet no man ever lived or probably ever will live that equalled or will equal him in the expression of thought. He simply read the book of nature and interpreted it from the standpoint of his own magnificent genius.”
― Joseph Devlin, How To Speak And Write Correctly

“There is an old Latin quotation in regard to the poet which says 'Poeta nascitur non fit' the translation of which is— the poet is born, not made.”
― Joseph Devlin, How To Speak And Write Correctly

“A child can learn what is right as easy as what is wrong and whatever impressions are made on the mind when it is plastic will remain there.”
― Joseph Devlin, How To Speak And Write Correctly

“In the works of Shakespeare, the most wonderful genius the world has ever known, there is the enormous number of 15,000 different words, but almost 10,000 of them are obsolete or meaningless today.”
― Joseph Devlin, How To Speak And Write Correctly

“To use a big word or a foreign word when a small one and a familiar one will answer the same purpose, is a sign of ignorance. Great scholars and writers and polite speakers use simple words.”
― Joseph Devlin, How to Speak and Write Correctly

“Every person of intelligence should be able to use his mother tongue correctly. It only requires a little pains, a little care, a little study to enable one to do so, and the recompense is great.”
― Joseph Devlin, How to Speak and Write Correctly

“Shakespeare used the word 'flush' to indicate plenty of money. Well, just remember there was only one Shakespeare, and he was the only one that had a right to use that word in that sense . You'll never be a Shakespeare, there will never be such another— Nature exhausted herself in producing him.”
― Joseph Devlin, How To Speak And Write Correctly

“Every person of intelligence should be able to use his mother tongue correctly. It only requires a little pains, a little care, a little study to enable one to do so, and the recompense is great.

Consider the contrast between the well-bred, polite man who knows how to choose and use his words correctly and the underbred, vulgar boor, whose language grates upon the ear and jars the sensitiveness of the finer feelings. The blunders of the latter, his infringement of all the canons of grammar, his absurdities and monstrosities of language , make his very presence a pain, and one is glad to escape from his company.

The proper grammatical formation of the English language , so that one may acquit himself as a correct conversationalist in the best society or be able to write and express his thoughts and ideas upon paper in the right manner, may be acquired in a few lessons.”
― Joseph Devlin, How To Speak And Write Correctly

“TEN GREATEST ENGLISH POETS Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare, Milton, Burns, Wordsworth, Keats, Shelley, Tennyson, Browning. TEN GREATEST ENGLISH ESSAYISTS Bacon, Addison, Steele, Macaulay, Lamb, Jeffrey, De Quincey, Carlyle, Thackeray and Matthew Arnold.”
― Joseph Devlin, How to Speak and Write Correctly

“If you would essay to write for the newspaper you must be natural and express yourself in your accustomed way without putting on airs or frills; you must not ape ornaments and indulge in bombast or rhodomontade which stamp a writer as not only superficial but silly. There is no room for such in the everyday newspaper. It wants facts stated in plain, unvarnished, unadorned language. True, you should read the best authors and, as far as possible, imitate their style, but don't try to literally copy them. Be yourself on every occasion—no one else.”
― Joseph Devlin, How to Speak and Write Correctly

“The English language is the tongue now current in England and her colonies throughout the world and also throughout the greater part of the United States of America. It sprang from the German tongue spoken by the Teutons, who came over to Britain after the conquest of that country by the Romans. These Teutons comprised Angles, Saxons, Jutes and several other tribes from the northern part of Germany. They spoke different dialects, but these became blended in the new country, and the composite tongue came to be known as the Anglo-Saxon which has been the main basis for the language as at present constituted and is still the prevailing element.”
― Joseph Devlin, How To Speak And Write Correctly

“In employing the long sentence the inexperienced writer should not strain after the heavy, ponderous type. Johnson and Carlyle used such a type, but remember, an ordinary mortal cannot wield the sledge hammer of a giant. Johnson and Carlyle were intellectual giants and few can hope to stand on the same literary pedestal.”
― Joseph Devlin, How To Speak And Write Correctly

“nor the inclination, to peruse elaborate and abstruse treatises on Rhetoric, Grammar, and Composition. To them such works are as gold enclosed in chests of steel and locked beyond power of opening. This book has no pretension about it whatever,—it is neither a Manual of Rhetoric, expatiating on the dogmas of style, nor a Grammar full of arbitrary rules and exceptions. It is merely an effort”
― Joseph Devlin, How to Speak and Write Correctly

“There are four simple moods,—the Infinitive, the Indicative, the Imperative and the Subjunctive.”
― Joseph Devlin, How to Speak and Write Correctly

“jocose,”
― Joseph Devlin, How to Speak and Write Correctly

“If you are poor that is not a detriment but an advantage. Poverty is an incentive to endeavor, not a drawback. Better to be born with a good, working brain in your head than with a gold spoon in your mouth. If the world had been depending on the so-called pets of fortune it would have deteriorated long ago.”
― Joseph Devlin, How To Speak And Write Correctly

“There are two guiding principles in the choice of words,—good use and good taste. Good use tells us whether a word is right or wrong; good taste, whether it is adapted to our purpose or not.”
― Joseph Devlin, How To Speak And Write Correctly

“In order to speak and write the English language correctly, it is imperative that the fundamental principles of the Grammar be mastered, for no matter how much we may read of the best authors, no matter how much we may associate with and imitate the best speakers,”
― Joseph Devlin, How to Speak and Write Correctly

“The greatest scholar alive hasn't more than four thousand different words at his command, and he never has occasion to use half the number. In”
― Joseph Devlin, How to Speak and Write Correctly

“subjects. Directions. CHAPTER XIII CHOICE OF WORDS”
― Joseph Devlin, How to Speak and Write Correctly

“Homeward the ploughman plods his weary way. The ploughman plods his weary way homeward. Plods homeward the ploughman his weary way. His weary way the ploughman homeward plods. Homeward his weary way plods the ploughman. Plods the ploughman his weary way homeward. His weary way the ploughman plods homeward. His weary way homeward the ploughman plods. The ploughman plods homeward his weary way. The ploughman his weary way plods homeward.”
― Joseph Devlin, How to Speak and Write Correctly

“A Pronoun is a word used for or instead of a noun to keep us from repeating the same noun too often. Pronouns, like nouns, have case, number, gender and person. There are three kinds of pronouns, personal, relative and adjective.”
― Joseph Devlin, How to Speak and Write Correctly

“consideration, whether by discourse or correspondence.”
― Joseph Devlin, How to Speak and Write Correctly

“speaker, the”
― Joseph Devlin, How to Speak and Write Correctly

“dependent upon”
― Joseph Devlin, How to Speak and Write Correctly

“thing, in”
― Joseph Devlin, How to Speak and Write Correctly

“The greatest scholar alive hasn't more than four thousand different words at his command, and he never has occasion to use half the number.”
― Joseph Devlin, How to Speak and Write Correctly