Style
No stile of writing is so delightful as that which is all pith, which never omits a necessary word, nor uses an unnecessary one.
Thomas Jefferson (Letter to his grandson)
Ethics
Writing is ethical when as a matter of principle, we would trade places with our intended readers and willingly experience what they do as they read our writing.
Joseph M. Williams
Difficulty
Easy reading is damned hard writing.
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Writing is easy. You just sit at a typewriter until blood appears on your forehead.
Red Smith
Technical Advice
"Begin at the beginning," the King said, gravely, "and go on till you come to the end; then stop."
Lewis Carroll
Something that looks like a bad sentence can be the germ of a good one.
Ludwig Wittgenstein
Read over your compositions, and wherever you meet with a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out.
Samuel Johnson