Source identified
“Words should serve the fact, and not substitute themselves for it”
Language is assigned a supporting role: words should clarify reality instead of becoming an impressive verbal screen that displaces the thing being discussed.
Source note: The Simple Life, Chapter IV, “Simplicity of Speech,” Mary Louise Hendee translation, Project Gutenberg #23092; Wagner criticizes language that replaces fact with display.
Source identified
“Omit needless words.”
Conciseness is treated as removal of words that do no useful work, not as a demand that every sentence be short or stripped of necessary detail.
Source note: The Elements of Style, Chapter III, Rule 13, Project Gutenberg #37134; the surrounding paragraph explicitly says detail need not be eliminated.
Source identified
“think justly, speak frankly.”
The paired verbs connect sound judgment with direct expression: clear communication should follow an effort to think fairly and say what is meant.
Source note: The Simple Life, Chapter IV, “Simplicity of Speech,” Mary Louise Hendee translation, Project Gutenberg #23092; Wagner joins just thought with frank speech.
Source identified
“In all you speak, let truth and candor shine.”
Pope treats candor as part of good judgment: accurate criticism should also be spoken with integrity and fairness.
Source note: An Essay on Criticism, in the section describing the moral duties of a critic.
Source identified
“I speak truth, not so much as I would, but as much as I dare.”
Frank self-description has limits, but Montaigne still treats increasing candor as part of the value of writing honestly about oneself.
Source note: Essays of Montaigne, Book III, Charles Cotton translation; the surrounding passage discusses fidelity and self-report.
Source identified
“Insincerity is always weakness; sincerity even in error is strength.”
The claim values genuine conviction over calculated pose in literary work, while allowing that sincere writers can still be factually or critically mistaken.
Source note: The Principles of Success in Literature, discussion of sincerity, Project Gutenberg #10420; preserved as Lewes’s literary-critical principle rather than a universal law.