How to Write Clearly 1) I have never had much patience with the writers who claim from the reader an effort to understand their meaning.2) You have only to go to great philosophers to see that it is possible to express with lucidity the most subtle reflections.3) One cause of obscurity is that many writers think not before but as they write.4) The pen originates the thought.5) The disadvantages of this and indeed it is a danger against which the author must be always on his guard is that there is a sort of magic in the written word.6) The idea acquires substance by taking on a visible nature and then stands in the way of its own clarification.7) But this sort of obscurity merges very easily into the willful.8) Some writers who do not think clearly are inclined to suppose that their thoughts have a significance greater than at first sight appears.9) It is flattering to believe that they are too profound to be expressed so clearly that all who run may read and very naturally it does not occur to such writers that the fault is with their own minds which have not the faculty of precise reis with their own minds which have not the faculty of precise reflection.