This was another week spent mostly at the National Archives, so my reading was once again a bit limited. Keep those submissions coming, friends—I have to actually start writing the thesis now so my reading time will be a bit curtailed.

The study of phantoms is at the same stage as previously reported.

September 1945 report on the Quartz Program in Brazil, Record Group 57 (US Geological Survey), Records Concerning the Quartz Commodity Program in Brazil, 1944–1945, Box 2.

A lot of these sentences were encountered and added on Tuesday, so I’ve been sitting with them for a while and I hope they aren’t overcooked.

Early on, the software had the regrettable habit of hitting police cruisers.

“Elon Musk’s Appetite For Destruction”, Christopher Cox in The New York Times

I spent most of this week at the National Archives doing research for my master’s thesis, so a lot of my reading has been frankly kind of dry government documents which do not lend themselves to perfect sentences. Nevertheless, the week (and even the archives) had some great ones.

Even if the crisis were to become worse, Communist propaganda would be confronted in the Argentine by a profound indifference to the future.

Report “Allegedly Prepared by Swiss Minister” on Argentina, Record Group 234 (Reconstruction Finance Corporation), Field Preclusive Operations Files 1942-47, Box 2

Hello and I hope you had a pleasant first week of the year! Here are some perfect sentences.

A stopped clock is right twice a day, but if it also screams and tries to terrify you, it’s haunted and you should get rid of it.

Calm Covid newsletter, Erin Kissane

Welcome to the first Perfect Sentences!

Some housekeeping as we get started:

• This opening newsletter is a bit wordy with annotations. Mostly you should just focus on the sentences, which is why they're set in bold. I'll try to keep the annotations to a minimum going forward but obviously I'm nervous and the opening move of new projects tends to involve a bit of over-explaining and trying to fill the silence.
• As a collection of the most perfect sentences I've come across while reading various things, most of them are not especially new sentences. This is not about sharing the best in recent writing, it is about appreciating perfect sentences.
• If you can, try reading the sentences out loud. It's very satisfying!
• Most of the sentences I share will be in English, maybe some in Spanish. Very small chance of some in Swedish. This is a matter of personal language limitations and not a comment on which languages do sentences better.
• I do accept sentence submissions from readers in all languages; translations are appreciated but more important to me would be getting audio of the sentence read out loud in its original language.

Anyway, here are the sentences.