Joseph Devlin > 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

“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

“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

“plural is generally formed from the singular by the addition of s or es.”
― 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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“CHAPTER I REQUIREMENTS”
― Joseph Devlin, How to Speak and Write Correctly

“number. In the works of Shakespeare, the most”
― 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

“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

“for all purposes of ordinary conversation and communication, only about 2,000 different words are required.”
― Joseph Devlin, How to Speak and Write Correctly

“Thus in the example, "John tore the leaves of Sarah's book," the distinction between book which represents only one object and leaves which represent two or more objects of the same kind is called Number; the distinction of sex between John, a male, and Sarah, a female, and book and leaves, things which are inanimate and neither male nor female, is called Gender; and the distinction of state between John, the person who tore the book, and the subject of the affirmation, Mary, the owner of the book, leaves the objects torn, and book the object related to leaves, as the whole of which they were a part, is called Case.”
― Joseph Devlin, How to Speak and Write Correctly

“When writing a letter the street laborer should bear in mind that only the letter of a street-laborer is expected from him, no matter to whom his communication may be addressed and that neither the grammar nor the diction of a Chesterfield or Gladstone is looked for in his language.”
― Joseph Devlin, How To Speak And Write Correctly

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

“Perspicuity”
― 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

“that. Who refers only to persons; which only to things; as, "The boy who was drowned," "The umbrella which I lost." The relative that may refer to both persons and things; as, "The man that I saw." "The hat that I bought.”
― Joseph Devlin, How To Speak And Write Correctly

“In life's earnest battle they only prevail Who daily march onward and never say fail.”
― Joseph Devlin, How to Speak and Write Correctly

“Never commence a sentence with And, But, Since, Because, and other similar weak words and never end it with prepositions, small, weak adverbs or pronouns.”
― Joseph Devlin, How To Speak And Write Correctly

“may classify the styles of the various authors in broad divisions as (1) dry, (2) plain, (3) neat, (4) elegant, (5) florid, (6) bombastic.”
― Joseph Devlin, How to Speak and Write Correctly

“Perspicuity demands the clearest expression of thought conveyed in unequivocal language, so that there may be no misunderstanding whatever of the thought or idea the speaker or writer wishes to convey.”
― Joseph Devlin, How to Speak and Write Correctly