Whatever we want to convey...

Whatever we want to convey, there is only one word to express it, one verb to animate it, one adjective to qualify it. We must therefore go on seeking that word, verb or adjective until we have discovered it, and never be satisfied with approximations, never fall back on tricks, even inspired ones, or tomfoolery of language to dodge the difficulty.

—Guy de Maupassant, "The Novel," preface to Pierre and Jean (1888) (trans. Leonard Tancock 1979).