Why I Write (Penguin Great Ideas)

Instead of being a single word, such as break, stop, spoil, mend, kill, a verb becomes a phrase,

Words of this kind are often used in a consciously dishonest way. That is, the person who uses them has his own private definition, but allows his hearer to think he means something quite different.

this reduced state of consciousness, if not indispensable, is at any rate favourable

The words democracy, socialism, freedom, patriotic, realistic, justice, have each of them several different meanings which cannot be reconciled with one another.

A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus: What am I trying to say? What words will express it? What image or idiom will make it clearer? Is this image fresh enough to have an effect? And he will probably ask himself two more: Could I put it more shortly? Have I said anything that is avoid

packet of aspirins

Underneath this lies the half-conscious belief that language is a natural growth and not an instrument which we shape for our own purposes.

i. Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print, ii. Never use a long word where a short one will do. iii. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out. iv. Never use the passive where you can use the active. v. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think

And the more one is conscious of one’s political bias, the more chance one has of acting politically without sacrificing one’s aesthetic and intellectual integrity.