Language Quote by Alan Brewer

“Prose: words in their best order; poetry: the best words in the best order.”

— Samuel Taylor Coleridge

I wish our clever young poets would remember my homely definitions of prose and poetry; that is, prose = words in their best order;…

— Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Poetry: the best words in the best order.

— Samuel Taylor Coleridge

“[The] defining characteristics of good prose [are]: a preference for short sentences diversified by an occasionally very long one; a tone that is relaxed…

— F.W. Bateson

Most good writing is clear, vigorous, honest, alive, sensuous, appropriate, unsentimental, rhythmic, without pretension, fresh, metaphorical, evocative in sound, economical, authoritative, surprising, memorable, and…

— Ken Macrorie

Good prose is written only face to face with poetry.

— Friedrich Nietzsche

Prose is when all the lines except the last go on to the end. Poetry is when some of them fall short of it.

— Jeremy Bentham

The definition of good prose is proper words in their proper places; of good verse, the most proper words in their proper places.The propriety…

— Samuel Taylor Coleridge

All the elements of good writing depend on the writer's skill in choosing one word instead of another.

— Francine Prose

The aim of good prose words is to mean what they say. The aim of good poetical words is to mean what they do…

— Gilbert K. Chesterton

Prose may carry a load of ill-defined matters like a ship. But poetry is the machine which drives it, pruned to a perfect economy.

— William Carlos Williams

“The best words in the best order...one always go the same shock of recognition and delight when someone's words swam up to meet a…

— Mary Stewart