Careful Words

style (n.)

style (v.)

style (adj.)

  It is most true, stylus virum arguit,—our style bewrays us.

Robert Burton (1576-1640): Anatomy of Melancholy. Democritus to the Reader.

  Style is the dress of thoughts.

Earl Of Chesterfield (1694-1773): Letter, Nov. 24, 1749.

  The style is the man himself.

A Christian is the highest style of man.

Edward Young (1684-1765): Night Thoughts. Night iv. Line 788.

But let a lord once own the happy lines,

How the wit brightens! how the style refines!

Alexander Pope (1688-1744): Essay on Criticism. Part ii. Line 220.

  Whoever wishes to attain an English style, familiar but not coarse, and elegant but not ostentatious, must give his days and nights to the volumes of Addison.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784): Life of Addison.