As to the Adjective: when in doubt, strike it out.

The line distills a core principle of Twain’s (often-quoted) advice on style: vigorous prose usually depends more on precise nouns and verbs than on decorative modifiers. “When in doubt” frames the rule as a practical editing test—if an adjective feels like it is compensating for vagueness or sentimentality, removing it typically makes the sentence cleaner, more concrete, and more credible. The maxim also reflects a broader late‑19th/early‑20th‑century push toward plain style and away from inflated rhetoric. Even when not applied rigidly, it encourages writers to earn every descriptive word and to prefer specificity over embellishment.