Mark Forsyth
- The Elements of Eloquence: Secrets of the Perfect Turn of Phrase, Chapter 8
Adjectives in English have to be in this order: opinion - size - age - shape - colour - origin - material - purpose noun. So you can have a lovely little old rectangular green French silver whittling knife. But if you mess with that word order in the slightest you'll sound like a maniac. It's an odd thing that every English speaker uses that list, but almost none of us could write it out. And as size comes before colour, green great dragons can't exist.
MindTrap
- Q-
This is a most unusual paragraph. How quickly can you find out what is so unusual about it? It looks so ordinary you'd think nothing was wrong with it - and in fact, nothing is wrong with it. It is unusual though. Why? Study it, think about it, and you may find out. Try to do it without coaching. If you work at it for a bit it will dawn on you. So jump to it and try your skill at figuring it out. Good luck - don't blow your cool!
Ellen Raskin
- The Westing Game
Who were these people, these specially selected tenants? They were mothers and fathers and children. A dressmaker, a secretary, an inventor, a doctor, and a judge. And, oh yes, one was a bookie, one was a burglar, one was a bomber, and one was a mistake. Barney Northrup had rented one of the apartments to the wrong person.
Raymond E. Feist
- Faerie Tale
Here in the Bright Lands we rule, mortal boy. But know that in the mortal world and in the Shadow Lands he and we are equals, and in the Dark Lands the one you call the Shining Man is supreme, and there must we fear him. You must bring him to us, here into the Bright Lands, so that we may deal with him. In any other place the issue would be in doubt. Do this and we shall return you and your brother safely home. That is our word on the subject.
Haruki Murakami (Translated to English)
- Kafka on the Shore
My thoughts slow down, and finally stop, like a train pulling into a station, and I can't think straight anymore, like the core of my body's coagulating. I walk into the bedroom, make a tangle out of getting my pants and shoes off, then slump down on the bed, bury my face in the pillow, and close my eyes. The pillow smells like the sunlight, a precious smell. I quietly breathe it in, breathe it out, and fall asleep before I know it.
Julie Garwood
- Honor's Splendour
He thought that her eyes were as blue as the sky above on the clearest of days, and considered, too, that she looked nothing like her brother. He cautioned himself that appearances meant nothing, even as he felt himself becoming mesmerized by her bewitchingly innocent gaze. He reminded himself that she was the sister of his enemy, nothing more, nothing less. Beautiful or not, she was his pawn, his snare to trap the demon.
Anonymous
- Inquiring Minds Want to Know
I am just here to find out if typing about mistakes will cause you to make more mistakes. Is the simple seed of the word "mistake" dropped innocuously here and there enough to cause someone to trip up and make errors that would have otherwise been a forgone conclusion of correctness? Taht is teh question I ahve hope of findig an answer to.
Plato
- The Republic
Then it seems that our first order of business is to supervise the production of stories, and choose only those we think suitable, and reject the rest. We shall persuade mothers and nurses to tell our chosen stories to their children, and by means of them to mold their minds and characters which are more important than their bodies. The greater part of the stories current today we shall have to reject.
Friedrich Nietzsche
- Thus Spoke Zarathustra
If I wanted to shake this tree with my hands I should not be able to do it. But the wind, which we do not see, tortures and bends it in whatever direction it pleases. It is by invisible hands that we are bent and tortured worst.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
- Reveries of the Solitary Walker
All things change round about us, we ourselves change, and no one can be sure of loving tomorrow what he loves today. All our plans of happiness in this life are therefore empty dreams. Let us make the most of peace of mind when it comes to us, taking care to do nothing to drive it away, but not making plans to hold it fast, since such plans are sheer folly.
