Quotes I find interesting or fun

Quote

After all, human agents are responsible for designing experiments, and they are present in the laboratory; writing awkward phrases to avoid admitting their responsibility and their presence is an odd way of being objective.

- Jane J. Robinson, Science 7 June 1957: 1160

Quote

I have only made this letter rather long because I have not had time to make it shorter.

- Blaise Pascal, Lettres provinciales - 1656 ( Also attributed to St. Augustine and Cicero)

Quote

The secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components. Every word that serves no function, every long word that could be a short word, every adverb that carries the same meaning that’s already in the verb, every passive construction that leaves the reader unsure of who is doing what; these are the thousand and one adulterants that weaken the strength of a sentence. And they usually occur in proportion to the education and rank.

Caution

This last part pertains to the notion that highly educated people tend to be needlessly verbose.

- William Zinsser in On writing well, 1976