Source identified
Read & copy the quotation
“Good writing should be governed by the rule that a man can think only one thing clearly at a time”
- Source
- The Art of Literature
- Date
- 1851
- English wording
- T. Bailey Saunders — Translator · from German
Meaning of “Good writing should be governed by the rule…”
Schopenhauer makes clarity of sentence structure answer to the limits of attention, arguing that prose should help the reader follow one thought distinctly instead of forcing several at once.
Where does it come from?
The Art of Literature, section “On Style,” T. Bailey Saunders translation; Project Gutenberg #10714. The following discussion criticizes overloaded parenthetical sentence construction.
