Felicity Quote by Edwin Percy Whipple

A fluent writer always seems more talented than he is. To write well, one needs a natural felicity and an acquired difficulty.

— Joseph Joubert

“Language can never 'pin down' slavery, genocide, war. Nor should it yearn for the arrogance to be able to do so. Its force, its…

— Toni Morrison

“use words that fit the context, to learn when to use high-flown language and when to use down-home words, and generally quit putting on…

— Kory Stamper

The chief merit of language is clearness.

— Galen

Fluency in even one other language would be fantastic.

— Jim Broadbent

The chief virtue that language can have is clearness, and nothing detracts from it so much as the use of unfamiliar words.

— Hippocrates

“I wanted to capture what language ability tests could never reveal: her intent, her passion, her imagery, the rhythms of her speech and the…

— Amy Tan

Although there is no substitute for merit in writing, clarity comes closest to being one.

— E. B. White

The chief merit of language is clearness, and we know that nothing detracts so much from this as do unfamiliar terms.

— Galen

Her fluency was marvelous. She would say things at random, intricate, flamelike, or slide off into a parenthetical limbo peppered with fireworks-- admirable linguistic…

— Henry Miller

Fluency in English is something that I'm often not accused of.

— George H. W. Bush

My mother, with a Master's in English Literature, taught me to appreciate language and that words matter.

— Pramila Jayapal