Quiller-Couch, Sir Arthur. 1916. On the Art of Writing

Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch delivered a series of lectures On the Art of Writing to the young gentlemen of the University of Cambridge in 1913-14. I've been dipping into his remarks recently, and hit this famous quotation from his lecture "On Style":

To begin with, let me plead that you have been told of one or two things which Style is not; which have little or nothing to do with Style, though sometimes vulgarly mistaken for it. Style, for example, is not--can never be--extraneous Ornament. You remember, may be, the Persian lover whom I quoted to you out of Newman: how to convey his passion he sought a professional letter-writer and purchased a vocabulary charged with ornament, wherewith to attract the fair one as with a basket of jewels. Well, in this extraneous, professional, purchased ornamentation, you have something which Style is not: and if you here require a practical rule of me, I will present you with this: "Whenever you feel an impulse to perpetrate a piece of exceptionally fine writing, obey it--whole-heartedly--and delete it before sending your manuscript to press. Murder your darlings." [my emphasis]

How often I've murdered my own darlings! Sarcastic phrases, flights of fancy, self-righteous phrases . . . all left on the editing floor. I just worry about the times I failed to exercise sufficient self-discipline.