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Passive Voice Quotes

Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. Never use a long word where a short one will do. If it is possible to cut a word out always cut it out. Never use the

Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. Never use a long word where a short one will do. If it is possible to cut a word out always cut it out. Never use the passive voice where you can use the active. Never use a foreign phrase a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

George Orwell
Cutting, Thinking, Passive Voice
George Orwell (1953). “Shooting an Elephant: And Other Essays”

The traveler was active; he went strenuously in search of people, of adventure, of experience. The tourist is passive.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Travel, Adventure, Passive Voice

Remember to never split an infinitive. The passive voice should never be used. Do not put statements in the negative form. Proofread carefully to see if you words out. And don't start a sentence with a conjugation.

William Safire
Passive Voice, Negative, Splits

Some of the worst writing around suffers from inert verbs and the unintended use of the passive voice. Yet the passive voice remains an important arrow in the rhetorical quiver. After all, it exists for a reason.

Constance Hale
Writing, Passive Voice, Arrows
"Mistakes were made" by Lisa Dusenbery, therumpus.net. May 02, 2012.

Each time I see a split infinitive, an inconsistent tense structure or the unnecessary use of the passive voice, I blister.

Sonia Sotomayor
Passive Voice, Use, Splits
"Sotomayoralities" by William Safire, www.nytimes.com. June 15, 2009.

Using the passive voice is always very helpful. Mind you, a lot of that propaganda English emanates from here. The British establishment has always used the passive voice. It's been a weapon of discourse so those who committed terrible acts in the old empire could not be identified.

John Pilger
Passive Voice, Mind, Weapons
Source: progressive.org

The very natural tendency to use terms derived from traditional grammar like verb, noun, adjective, passive voice, in describing languages outside of Indo-European is fraught with grave possibilities of misunderstanding.

Benjamin Lee Whorf
Passive Voice, Nouns, Adjectives
Benjamin Lee Whorf, John B. Carroll, Stephen C. Levinson, Penny Lee (2012). “Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf”, p.113, MIT Press

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