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Top 20 Mary Norris Quotes (2025 Update)

Mary Norris Quote: “Muphry’s Law: “If you write anything criticising editing or proofreading, there will be a fault of some kind in what you have written.”

1. “Muphry’s Law: “If you write anything criticising editing or proofreading, there will be a fault of some kind in what you have written.”

— Mary Norris

Mary Norris Quote: “I would never disable spell-check. That would be hubris. Autocorrect I could do without.”

2. “I would never disable spell-check. That would be hubris. Autocorrect I could do without.”

— Mary Norris

Mary Norris Quote: “Sing in me, o Muse, of that small minority of men who are secure enough in their masculinity to use the feminine third-person singular!”

3. “Sing in me, o Muse, of that small minority of men who are secure enough in their masculinity to use the feminine third-person singular!”

— Mary Norris

Mary Norris Quote: “Nobody knows everything – one of the pleasures of language is that there is always something new to learn – and everybody makes mistakes.”

4. “Nobody knows everything – one of the pleasures of language is that there is always something new to learn – and everybody makes mistakes.”

— Mary Norris

Mary Norris Quote: “Why, if there is alphabet soup, do we not have punctuation cereal?”

5. “Why, if there is alphabet soup, do we not have punctuation cereal?”

— Mary Norris

Mary Norris Quote: “Commas, like nuns, often travel in pairs.”

6. “Commas, like nuns, often travel in pairs.”

— Mary Norris

Mary Norris Quote: “First we get the rocks out, Alice. Then we get the pebbles out. Then we get the sand out, and the writer’s voice rises. No harm done.”

7. “First we get the rocks out, Alice. Then we get the pebbles out. Then we get the sand out, and the writer’s voice rises. No harm done.”

— Mary Norris

Mary Norris Quote: “So many things in language can never be known or settled or explained, except by custom.”

8. “So many things in language can never be known or settled or explained, except by custom.”

— Mary Norris

Mary Norris Quote: “A writer friend who was born in England summed up her feelings for the semicolon in a remark worthy of Henry James: “There is no pleasure so acute as that of a well-placed semicolon.” I guess the opposite of that is that there is no displeasure so obtuse as that of an ill-placed semicolon.”

9. “A writer friend who was born in England summed up her feelings for the semicolon in a remark worthy of Henry James: “There is no pleasure so acute as that of a well-placed semicolon.” I guess the opposite of that is that there is no displeasure so obtuse as that of an ill-placed semicolon.”

— Mary Norris

Mary Norris Quote: “If commas are open to interpretation, hyphens are downright Delphic.”

10. “If commas are open to interpretation, hyphens are downright Delphic.”

— Mary Norris

Mary Norris Quote: “The English language is full of words that are just waiting to be misspelled, and the world is full of sticklers, ready to pounce.”

11. “The English language is full of words that are just waiting to be misspelled, and the world is full of sticklers, ready to pounce.”

— Mary Norris

Mary Norris Quote: “I can’t help but think that the way we punctuate now is the right way – that we are living in a punctuation renaissance.”

12. “I can’t help but think that the way we punctuate now is the right way – that we are living in a punctuation renaissance.”

— Mary Norris

Mary Norris Quote: “The better the writer, the more complicated the dangler.”

13. “The better the writer, the more complicated the dangler.”

— Mary Norris

Mary Norris Quote: “Because English has so many words of foreign origin, and words that look the same but mean something different depending on their context, and words that are in flux, opening and closing like flowers in time-lapse photography, the human element is especially important if we are to stay on top of the computers, which, in their determination to do our job for us, make decisions so subversive that even professional wordsmiths are taken by surprise.”

14. “Because English has so many words of foreign origin, and words that look the same but mean something different depending on their context, and words that are in flux, opening and closing like flowers in time-lapse photography, the human element is especially important if we are to stay on top of the computers, which, in their determination to do our job for us, make decisions so subversive that even professional wordsmiths are taken by surprise.”

— Mary Norris

Mary Norris Quote: “Punctuation is a deeply conservative club. It hardly ever admits a new member.”

15. “Punctuation is a deeply conservative club. It hardly ever admits a new member.”

— Mary Norris

Mary Norris Quote: “Those extra letters dangling at the ends of words are the genitalia of grammar.”

16. “Those extra letters dangling at the ends of words are the genitalia of grammar.”

— Mary Norris

Mary Norris Quote: “There is a phase in the life of every copy editor when she is obsessed with hyphens.”

17. “There is a phase in the life of every copy editor when she is obsessed with hyphens.”

— Mary Norris

Mary Norris Quote: “In my experience, the really great writers enjoy the editorial process.”

18. “In my experience, the really great writers enjoy the editorial process.”

— Mary Norris

Mary Norris Quote: “Whom” may indeed be on the way out, but so is Venice, and we still like to go there.”

19. “Whom” may indeed be on the way out, but so is Venice, and we still like to go there.”

— Mary Norris

Mary Norris Quote: “The alphabet is the greatest invention of humankind, and even has a spark of the divine: it gave us the written word, which gave us the means to communicate with both the past and the future.”

20. “The alphabet is the greatest invention of humankind, and even has a spark of the divine: it gave us the written word, which gave us the means to communicate with both the past and the future.”

— Mary Norris

Mary Norris Quote: “I always wanted to write a book, but it looked really hard: how did you get all the lines to come out even on the right-hand side of the page?”

21. “I always wanted to write a book, but it looked really hard: how did you get all the lines to come out even on the right-hand side of the page?”

— Mary Norris

Mary Norris Quote: “Some women bristle, in certain contexts, at being called female: it seems to focus exclusively on the reproductive system, and makes you feel like a chicken, all thighs and breasts.”

22. “Some women bristle, in certain contexts, at being called female: it seems to focus exclusively on the reproductive system, and makes you feel like a chicken, all thighs and breasts.”

— Mary Norris

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