"Use not big words for naught"
About this Quote
“Use not big words for naught” lands like a tiny editorial slap: a commandment against verbal inflation. Heroux’s phrasing is deliberately old-fashioned, almost biblical, which is the first sly move. He’s warning you off pomp, and he does it with a touch of pomp himself. That tension is the point. It’s not anti-intellectual; it’s anti-posture.
The intent is practical craftsmanship. A writer who has fought sentences into clarity knows how “big words” can become decorative shrubbery: impressive from a distance, choking up close. Heroux isn’t saying avoid precision or ambition. He’s saying earn your complexity. If a rare word carries a specific shade of meaning, use it. If it’s there to make the writer feel taller, it’s naught.
The subtext is moral as much as stylistic. Inflated diction is a subtle form of social control: it gates knowledge, signals rank, and lets speakers dodge accountability by hiding behind abstraction. “For naught” names that emptiness. The crime isn’t difficulty; it’s dishonesty - the way grand language can disguise thin thinking.
Contextually, Heroux sits in a 20th-century lineage of writers pushing back against bureaucratese and academic fog, where language becomes a tool for evasion rather than communication. The quote works because it’s compact, quotable, and self-enacting: it uses simple words to shame needless complexity. It’s a reminder that clarity isn’t a lack of sophistication; it’s a refusal to bluff.
The intent is practical craftsmanship. A writer who has fought sentences into clarity knows how “big words” can become decorative shrubbery: impressive from a distance, choking up close. Heroux isn’t saying avoid precision or ambition. He’s saying earn your complexity. If a rare word carries a specific shade of meaning, use it. If it’s there to make the writer feel taller, it’s naught.
The subtext is moral as much as stylistic. Inflated diction is a subtle form of social control: it gates knowledge, signals rank, and lets speakers dodge accountability by hiding behind abstraction. “For naught” names that emptiness. The crime isn’t difficulty; it’s dishonesty - the way grand language can disguise thin thinking.
Contextually, Heroux sits in a 20th-century lineage of writers pushing back against bureaucratese and academic fog, where language becomes a tool for evasion rather than communication. The quote works because it’s compact, quotable, and self-enacting: it uses simple words to shame needless complexity. It’s a reminder that clarity isn’t a lack of sophistication; it’s a refusal to bluff.
Quote Details
| Topic | Writing |
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