Quotes About Clarity

The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug. Mark Twain

What I wrote was mostly unintelligible, except for one bit about a suicidal dog. The first line went, alliteratively enough, Don't do it, dog.

If you have a difficult decision to make, never force it, Rob had told his boys. Weigh each alternative singly, without prejudice. If they seem to balance evenly, no advantage one way or the other, do not be deceived. There is an advantage one way or the other. If you wait long enough, it will become apparent to you and suddenly the decision will be made without difficulty, and it will be right.

Sometimes I dream that everything in the world is here, in my room, in a great closet, named and orderly, and I am here too, in front of it, hardly able to see for the flash and the brightness— and sometimes I am that madcap person clapping my hands and singing; and sometimes I am that quiet person down on my knees.

Emerson, I am trying to live, as you said we must, the examined life. But there are days I wish there was less in my head to examine, not to speak of the busy heart. How would it be to be Percy, I wonder, not thinking, not weighing anything, just running forward.

I began to pick through the red rivers of confusion; I began to take apart the deep stitches of nightmares.

Clear pebbles of the rain

Imagine lifting the lid from a jar and finding it filled not with darkness but with light.

Every adjective and adverb is worth five cents. Every verb is worth fifty cents

Why do I have so many thoughts, they are driving me crazy. Why am I always going anywhere, instead of somewhere?

The television has two instruments that control it. I get confused. The washer asks me, do you want regular or delicate? Honestly, I just want clean. Everything is like that. I won't even mention cell phones. I can turn on the light of the lamp beside my chair Where a book is waiting, but that's about it. Oh yes, and I can strike a match and make fire.

As I grew older the things I cared about grew fewer, but were more important.

let me be as urgent as a knife

I always said there were plenty of things going on here, right under our noses, that we couldn't see, she said, holding out her apron. I don't see with my nose, I remarked. What have you got there?

You know, up until later on today, I never really knew how to drink.

I think perhaps a syllable maximum should be set for some people and, I'm sorry, but rather a low one.

for nothing contributes so much to tranquilize the mind as a steady purpose -- a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye.

nothing contributes so much to tranquillize the mind as a steady purpose—a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye.

nothing contributes so much to tranquillize the mind as a steady purpose—a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye. This

Non v'è contributo migliore di un fermo proposito per tranquillizzare la mente, di un obiettivo, cioè, su cui l'anima fissi il suo sguardo intellettivo.

pues no hay nada mejor para tranquilizar la mente que un propósito constante, un punto donde el alma pueda fijar la mirada de su intelecto.

porque nada contribuye tanto a tranquilizar la mente como un firme propósito, un punto en que el alma pueda fijar su mira intelectual

She wondered at her previous blindness; it was as if she had closed her eyelids, and then fancied it was night. No fear that she should return to darkness; her heart felt so light, her spirit so clear and animated, that she could only wonder how it was she had missed happiness so long, when it needed only that she should stretch out her hand to take it.

Knowledge, I suppose, blocked the gates of vision.