Style! style! why, all writers will tell you that it is the very thing which can least of all he changed. A man's style is nearly as much a part of him as his physiognomy, his figure, the throbbing of his pulse,—in short, as any part of his being which is at least subjected to the action of the will. --Fenelon.

One step from the sublime to the ridiculous.

Longinus. Napoleon I. to Dk Pradt at Warsaw. See Histoire de C Ambassade dans le Grande Duche de Vasovie (1812). Thomas Paine—Age of Reason. Pt. II.

Expression is the dress of thought, and still
Appears more decent as more suitable;
A vile conceit in pompous words express'd,
Is like a clown in regal purple dress'd.
Pope—Essay on Criticism. L. 318.

Such labour'd nothings, in so strange a style,
Amaze th' learn'd, and make the learned smile. Pope—Essay on Criticism. Pt. II. L. 126.

The flowery style is not unsuitable to public speeches or addresses, which amount only to compliment. The lighter beauties are in their place when there is nothing more solid to say; but the flowery style ought to be banished from a pleading, a sermon, or a didactic work. VOLTAIRE—Philosophical Dictionary.

Source: The Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations, by Jehiel Keeler Hoyt, 1896.