Quotes familiar and unfamiliar

Mark Twain (1835 – 1910)

As a journalist, I've read a few quotes about my profession that have stuck with me. Some are funny. Others have the power still to make me think.

Let's start with a quote about writing from Mark Twain, one of our most pithy, humorous and cantankerous authors and journalists. He was talking about a common -- and overused -- adverb that had become a language tic even in his day.

"Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very'; your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be."

Now that's a blow for concision. And it's concisely expressed.

You've probably never heard of the person I'm going to quote next. James Nicoll is an Internet personality and blogger. He is perhaps most famous for what he wrote in 1990, in a Usenet group (rec.arts.sf-lovers), about the richness of our language.

"The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and riffle their pockets for new vocabulary."

(He later acknowledged that 'riffle' was a misspelling of 'rifle'.)

And here's one from somebody we all know. Often, merely a part of it is used. (I've underlined that part below). But the full quote, in context, is deeply thought-provoking. It's by Virginia's Thomas Jefferson.

"The basis of our governments being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. But I should mean that every man should receive those papers and be capable of reading them."

Think about that. And then think about it again.

I'll leave you with a quote that every journalist knows. Efforts to trace its origins have not borne fruit. It has now assumed the status of a cliché among those who face deadlines.

"If your mother says she loves you, check it out."

Skepticism, in a reporter, is a good thing.