"So avoid using the word ‘very’ because it’s lazy...."

Advice I still use -- and teach -- to this day:

“So avoid using the word ‘very’ because it’s lazy. A man is not very tired, he is exhausted. Don’t use very sad, use morose. Language was invented for one reason, boys - to woo women - and, in that endeavor, laziness will not do. It also won’t do in your essays.”

—  John Keating, Dead Poets’ Society

RIP, Mr. Keating and Mr. Williams.