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My 15 Favourite Quotes On Grammar
In this post from Writers Write, your top writing resource, we share our 15 favourite literary quotes on grammar.
Must-read posts:
- Punctuation For Beginners
- Grammar For Beginners: All About Parts Of Speech
- The Ultimate Grammar Cheat Sheet for Writers (Infographic)
My 15 Favourite Quotes On Grammar
- The reason it’s worth standing up for punctuation is not that it’s an arbitrary system of notation known only to an over-sensitive elite who have attacks of the vapours when they see it misapplied. The reason to stand up for punctuation is that without it there is no reliable way of communicating meaning. ~Lynne Truss
- Grammar is a piano I play by ear. All I know about grammar is its power. ~Joan Didion
- A philosopher once said, ‘Half of good philosophy is good grammar.’ ~A. P. Martinich
- There is a satisfactory boniness about grammar which the flesh of sheer vocabulary requires before it can become a vertebrate and walk the earth. ~Anthony Burgess
- I will not go down to posterity talking bad grammar. ~Benjamin Disraeli
- The greater part of the world’s troubles are due to questions and grammar. ~Michel de Montaigne
- Grammar is the logic of speech, even as logic is the grammar of reason. ~Richard C. Trench
- Nostalgia is like a grammar lesson: you find the present tense, but the past perfect! ~Owens Lee Pomeroy
- Every English poet should master the rules of grammar before he attempts to bend or break them. ~Robert Graves
- Do not be surprised when those who ignore the rules of grammar also ignore the law. After all, the law is just so much grammar. ~Robert Brault
- People don’t talk like this, theytalklikethis. Syllables, words, sentences run together like a watercolour left in the rain. To understand what anyone is saying to us we must separate these noises into words and the words into sentences so that we might in our turn issue a stream of mixed sounds in response. ~Bill Bryson
- People who cannot distinguish between good and bad language, or who regard the distinction as unimportant, are unlikely to think carefully about anything else. ~B. R. Myers
- Ill-fitting grammar are like ill-fitting shoes. You can get used to it for a bit, but then one day your toes fall off and you can’t walk to the bathroom. ~Jasper Fforde
- It’s hard to take someone seriously when they leave you a note saying, ‘Your ugly.’ My ugly what? The idiot didn’t even know the difference between your and you’re. ~Cara Lynn Shultz
- Grammar and logic free language from being at the mercy of the tone of voice. ~Rosenstock Huessy
[Top Tip: If you need practical help with your grammar, buy The Complete Grammar Workbook.]
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Posted on: 9th October 2012
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