Quotes from Bryan A. Garner

We all take leave of our senses, from time to time. . . . .

A mathematician once told me that there are really only four numbers in the world: one, two, three, and many.

mostly unsuccessful attempts to teach grade-school children English using transformational grammar were made during the 1960s and early 1970s. Today it is taught mostly in colleges and graduate schools. Outside linguistics, transformational grammar is used mostly in computer-language-processing applications. It has an alien look and feel to traditionalists, but it can convey interesting insights into how the language works

All it takes is a few words to make a strong impression, good or bad.

Not until 1761 did any grammarian settle on the eight that became the canonical parts of speech in English. He was the same man who discovered oxygen: Joseph Priestley (1733–1804). In his Rudiments of English Grammar, he listed these: • noun • adjective • pronoun • verb • adverb • preposition • conjunction • interjection15

documents—a luxury that earlier lexicographers never enjoyed.

you'll have to be willing to embrace simplicity—while always resisting oversimplification.