Source identified
“Murder your darlings.”
The memorable command advises writers to delete showy passages they love when those passages serve vanity or ornament more than the work as a whole.
Source note: On the Art of Writing, Lecture XII, “On Style,” Project Gutenberg #17470; the phrase concludes Quiller-Couch’s warning against purchased or extraneous ornament.
Source identified
“To see a World in a Grain of Sand and a Heaven in a Wild Flower.”
The image invites attention to scale and wonder, suggesting that profound meaning can appear inside ordinary and easily overlooked details.
Source note: Opening of “Auguries of Innocence”; Blake places vastness inside tiny natural forms.
Source identified
“Beauty of style and harmony and grace and good rhythm depend on simplicity.”
Voice: Dialogue speaker · Socrates
Aesthetic excellence is linked with order and simplicity rather than decorative complexity for its own sake.
Source note: The Republic, Book III, Jowett translation; the passage connects musical and literary form with simplicity of character.
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
“Use the active voice.”
The rule favors direct sentence construction when it makes agency clearer, while the surrounding discussion still allows passive voice when context requires it.
Source note: The Elements of Style, Chapter III, Rule 10, Project Gutenberg #37134; Strunk immediately qualifies the rule by noting legitimate uses of passive construction.
Source identified
“Vigorous writing is concise.”
Strunk links force with economy: prose becomes stronger when each word contributes to the sentence rather than merely increasing its length.
Source note: The Elements of Style, Chapter III, Rule 13, Project Gutenberg #37134; this sentence introduces the explanation of “Omit needless words.”