Passive voice quotes:

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  • Each time I see a split infinitive, an inconsistent tense structure or the unnecessary use of the passive voice, I blister. -- Sonia Sotomayor
  • All research scientists know that writing in the passive voice is artificial; they are not disembodied observers, but people doing research. -- Rupert Sheldrake
  • The very natural tendency to use terms derived from traditional grammar like verb, noun, adjective, passive voice, in describing languages outside of Indo-European is fraught with grave possibilities of misunderstanding. -- Benjamin Lee Whorf
  • Some of the worst writing around suffers from inert verbs and the unintended use of the passive voice. Yet the passive voice remains an important arrow in the rhetorical quiver. After all, it exists for a reason. -- Constance Hale
  • Remember to never split an infinitive. The passive voice should never be used. Do not put statements in the negative form. Proofread carefully to see if you words out. And don't start a sentence with a conjugation. -- William Safire
  • Using the passive voice is always very helpful. Mind you, a lot of that propaganda English emanates from here. The British establishment has always used the passive voice. It's been a weapon of discourse so those who committed terrible acts in the old empire could not be identified. -- John Pilger
  • In the late 1960s, the masses were supposed to be passive, not entering into the public arena and having their voices heard. -- Noam Chomsky
  • The simplest and cheapest of all reforms within institutional science is to switch from the passive to the active voice in writing about science. -- Rupert Sheldrake
  • Objectivity is the subject subjugating the object. That is how you assert yourself. You make yourself the active voice and the object is the passive no-voice. -- Emily Levine
  • Live in the active voice, rather than passive. Think more about what you happen than what is happening to you. -- William DeWitt Hyde
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