Monday, March 13, 2006

Sir Ernest speaks again (vicariously)

The craftsman is proud and careful of his tools: the surgeon does not operate with an old razor-blade: the sportsman fusses happily and long over the choice of rod, gun, club, or racquet. But the man who is working in words, unless he is a professional writer (and not always then), is singularly neglectful of his instruments.

--Ivor Brown (as quoted in Sir Ernest Gowers, The Complete Plain Words 69 (1954; repr. 1964)).

No comments: