In composing, as a general rule, run your pen through every other word you have written; you have no idea what vigor it will give to your style.
Source: In Quotations of Wit and Wisdom, ed. & John W. Garder et al., 1975.
-- Sydney Smith, (Jun 6 1771-1845), English clergyman, essayist; He was a leading preacher of his day who championed Catholic emancipation in Letters of Peter Plymley, 1807.