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Make a habit of reading what is being written today and what has been written before. Writing is learned by imitation.

— William Zinsser On Writing Well (1976)

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More quotes by William Zinsser

Good writers are visible just behind their words.

On Writing Well (1976)

If you write for yourself, you'll reach all the people you want to write for.

On Writing Well (1976)

The writer who cares about usage must always know the quick from the dead.

On Writing Well (1976)

Memoir is the art of inventing the truth.

On Writing Well (1976)

People and places are the twin pillars on which most nonfiction is built. Every human event happens somewhere, and the reader wants to know what that somewhere was like.

On Writing Well (1976)

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Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.

Francis Bacon Meditationes sacræ (1597)

It is not in the books of the Philosophers, but in the religious symbolism of the Ancients, that we must look for the footprints of Science, and re-discover the Mysteries of Knowledge.

Albert Pike Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry (1871)

There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches.

Ray Bradbury Fahrenheit 451 (1953)

People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading.

Logan Pearsall Smith Afterthoughts (1931)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: William Zinsser (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.