« Proper punctuation is both the sign and the cause of clear
thinking. We have a language that is full of ambiguities; we have a way of
expressing ourselves that is often complex and elusive, poetic and
modulated; all our thoughts can be rendered with absolute clarity if we
bother to put the right dots and squiggles between the words in the
right places. […]
[James] Thurber was once asked by a correspondent: “Why did you have a comma in the
sentence, ‘After dinner, the men went into the living-room’?” And his
answer was probably one of the loveliest things ever said about
punctuation. “This particular comma,” Thurber explained, “was Ross’s way
of giving the men time to push back their chairs and stand up.” »
