Books Quote by Quintilian

Don't write so that you can be understood, write so that you can't be misunderstood.

— William Howard Taft

Do not write merely to be understood. Write so you cannot possibly be misunderstood.

— Robert Louis Stevenson

The problem with merely writing so that you can be understood is that the wrong people, in advancing their agendas, are only too ready…

— William A. Dembski

I think that the reader should enrich what he is reading. He should misunderstand the text; he should change it into something else.

— Jorge Luis Borges

It is not possible to write clearly enough to avoid being misrepresented by people who are sufficiently determined to do so.

— Karl Popper

One should aim not at being possible to understand, but at being impossible to misunderstand.

— Quintilian

... when we are misunderstood it is always our own fault. What the reader wants most of all is to be able to grasp…

— George Sand

If the writer were more like a reader, he’d be a reader, not a writer. It’s as uncomplicated as that.

— Julian Barnes

Writing shouldn't come between the reader and what's being described. It should be as transparent as possible.

— Diana Athill

If readers understand that they do not understand what they are reading then they must possess an understanding which is superior to the meaning…

— Arlo Guthrie

Few authors understand themselves, and a proper reader must not only understand his author but also be able to see beyond him

— Johann Georg Hamann

A writer should write what he has to say and not speak it.

— Ernest Hemingway