Thursday 14 July 2016

Quote of the Day: But me no buts!

 

“In every sentence where it appears, ‘but’ is the boundary between what the author doesn’t mean and what he does.”
~ commenter at the Samizdata blog

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3 comments:

MarkT said...

I think that overstates it a little. I don't think everything that comes before the 'but' is meaningless, BUT it is secondary to what comes after the 'but'. What comes after is the primary and most relevant point in the discussion, and it's good practice to remember this when writing.

Peter Cresswell said...

You could be right about informal writing, but it's a cast-iron rule in any writing involving politics.

paul scott said...

Libertarians are good, but Conservative better.