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Quotations about
the Oxford Comma
Welcome to my page of quotations about the serial comma, otherwise known as the Oxford comma. I am an ardent and lifelong supporter of said beast. If you are not, proceed with caution — you're entering enemy territory. Enjoy the quotes!
There are people who embrace the Oxford comma and people who don't, and I'll just say this: never get between these people when drink has been taken. ~Lynne Truss, Eats, Shoots & Leaves, 2003
The serial comma is sexy, smart, and useful. ~Internet meme, c. 2014
An Oxford comma walks into a bar. Orders a gin, and tonic. ~Eric Jarosinski, @NeinQuarterly, tweet, 2013
Call it pedantic, but comma wars are a thing. ~Erin Blakemore, "A Missing Oxford Comma Just Changed the Course of a Court Case," Smithsonian.com, 2017
How can one little punctuation mark create such a vast and ugly divide between loved ones? ~Melia Dicker, "I Won't Quit You, Oxford Comma," 2011
In the world of legal writing, the status of the serial comma keeps many of us (well, me) up at night. Before you dismiss such talk with a brisk "get a life," just remember that punctuation has decided many a lawsuit, and has even sent men to the gallows... ~Adam Freedman, "Comma Cause," in New York Law Journal Magazine, 2004
You can have my Oxford comma when you pry it from my cold, dead, and lifeless hands. ~Internet meme, c. 2012
In the United States the apostrophe seems to be doomed... In other respects American and English punctuation show few differences. The English are rather more careful than we are, and commonly put a comma after the next-to-last member of a series, but otherwise are not too precise to offend a red-blooded American. ~H. L. Mencken, The American Language, Supplement II: An Inquiry into the Development of English in the United States, 1948
The serial comma is one of the sanest punctuation usages in the written language. It gives each element of a series its own distinct place in it, instead of lumping the last two together in one hasty breath... I am, clearly, violently in favor of it... ~Mary Elizabeth Williams, "Don't kill the Oxford comma!," Salon.com, 2011
The serial comma community is determined, tenacious, and resilient. We will keep sticking the comma into our sentences, and still sacrifice that one valuable character of our tweets in its service. ~Mary Elizabeth Williams, "Don't kill the Oxford comma!," Salon.com, 2011
You know you're a language nerd when you have a strong opinion about serial commas. ~Internet meme, c. 2012
Your participle's danglin'
But I don't want your drama
If you really wanna
Leave out that Oxford comma
Just keep in mind
That be, see, are, you
Are words, not letters...
And listen up when I tell you this
I hope you never use quotation marks for emphasis...
~© "Weird Al" Yankovic, "Word Crimes," Mandatory Fun, 2014, weirdal.com ♫
Save the bees, the trees, and the Oxford comma. ~Internet meme, c. 2012
There's the Oxford comma, but I like the Shatner comma. It's when you pepper them in, so, you know where, to add, dramatic pauses. ~Nicole Leigh Shaw, 2014
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published 2012 Apr 28
revised Jul 2015, Aug 2017
last saved 2023 Aug 15
www.quotegarden.com/grammar-oxford-comma.html