To me style is just the outside of content, and content the inside of style, like the outside and the inside of the human body—both go together, they can’t be separated.
—Jean-luc Godard (b.1930) French-born Swiss Film Director, Film Critic
To write in a genuine familiar or truly English style is to write as any one would speak in common conversation, who had a thorough command and choice of words, or who could discourse with ease, force, and perspicuity, setting aside all pedantic and oratorical flourishes.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
Style is not something applied. It is something that permeates. It is of the nature of that in which it is found, whether the poem, the manner of a god, the bearing of a man. It is not a dress.
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) American Poet
I love everything that’s old: old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wines; and, I believe, Dorothy, you’ll own I have been pretty fond of an old wife.
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730–74) Irish Novelist, Playwright, Poet
Classical and romantic: private language of a family quarrel, a dead dispute over the distribution of emphasis between man and nature.
—Cyril Connolly (1903–74) British Literary Critic, Writer
Style is the gossamer on which the seeds of truth float through the world.
—George Bancroft (1800–91) American Historian, Politician
Style is the hallmark of a temperament stamped on the material in hand.
—Andre Maurois (1885–1967) French Novelist, Biographer
Absolute catholicity of taste is not without its dangers. It is only an auctioneer who should admire all schools of art.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Without taste genius is only a sublime kind of folly. That sure touch which the lyre gives back the right note and nothing more, is even a rarer gift than the creative faculty itself.
—Francois-Rene de Chateaubriand (1768–1848) French Writer, Academician, Statesman
The unaffected of every country nearly resemble each other, and a page of Confucius and Tillotson have scarce any material difference, paltry affectation, strained allusions, and disgusting finery are easily attained by those who choose to wear them; they are but too frequently the badges of ignorance or of stupidity whenever it would endeavor to please.
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730–74) Irish Novelist, Playwright, Poet
In what he leaves unsaid I discover a master of style.
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
Taste has no system and no proofs.
—Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American Writer, Philosopher
The style shows the man. Whether in speaking or writing, a gentleman is always known by his style.
—Latin Proverb
What is food to one man is bitter poison to others.
—Lucretius (c.99–55 BCE) Roman Epicurean Poet, Philosopher
When we meet with a natural style we are surprised and delighted, for we expected to find an author, and have found a man.
—Blaise Pascal (1623–62) French Mathematician, Physicist, Theologian
While one should always study the method of a great artist, one should never imitate his manner. The manner of an artist is essentially individual, the method of an artist is absolutely universal. The first is personality, which no one should copy; the second is perfection, which all should aim at.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Fashions, after all, are only induced epidemics.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
A great writer possesses, so to speak, an individual and unchangeable style, which does not permit him easily to preserve the anonymous.
—Voltaire (1694–1778) French Philosopher, Author
Style may be defined, “proper words in proper places.”
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Irish Satirist
I cannot cure myself of that most woeful of youth’s follies—thinking that those who care about us will care for the things that mean much to us.
—D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930) English Novelist, Playwright, Poet, Essayist, Literary Critic
A cultivated style would be like a mask. Everybody knows it’s a mask, and sooner or later you must show yourself—or at least, you show yourself as someone who could not afford to show himself, and so created something to hide behind. You do not create a style. You work, and develop yourself; your style is an emanation from your own being.
—Katherine Anne Porter (1890–1980) American Short-Story Writer, Novelist
Bad taste is a species of bad morals.
—Christian Nestell Bovee (1820–1904) American Writer, Aphorist
It is good taste, and good taste alone, that possesses the power to sterilize and is always the first handicap to any creative functioning.
—Salvador Dali (1904–89) Spanish Painter
Every good writer has much idiom; it is the life and spirit of language.
—Walter Savage Landor (1775–1864) English Writer, Poet
Taste cannot be controlled by law.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
The lively phraseology of Montesquieu was the result of long meditation. His words, as light as wings, bear on them grave reflections.
—Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) French Writer, Moralist
All of life is a dispute over taste and tasting.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
Obscurity and affectation are the two great faults of style. Obscurity of expression generally springs from confusion of ideas; and the same wish to dazzle, at any cost, which produces affectation in the manner of a writer, is likely to produce sophistry in his reasoning.
—Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay (1800–59) English Historian, Essayist, Philanthropist
Clothes and manners do not make the man; but, when he is made, they greatly improve his appearance.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
Good taste is the excuse I have given for leading such a bad life.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright