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The advice “If you catch an adjective, kill it” (or “When you catch an adjective, kill it”) is famously from Mark Twain, though Voltaire also famously said, “The adjective is the enemy of the noun”. Both offered strong critiques of excessive adjectives, with Twain urging writers to eliminate weak ones for stronger nouns and verbs, and Voltaire calling them the noun’s adversary. 

• Mark Twain: “When you catch an adjective, kill it. No, I don’t mean utterly, but kill most of them—then the rest will be valuable. They weaken when they are close together”.
• Voltaire: “The adjective is the enemy of the noun”. 

Both writers championed clearer, more forceful prose by favoring strong nouns and verbs over descriptive fluff, a core principle in good writing. 

Portrait c. 1720s, the Musée Carnavalet

François-Marie Arouet, known by his nom de plume Voltaire (November 21, 1694 – May 30, 1778), was a French Enlightenment writer, philosopher, satirist, and historian. Famous for his wit and his criticism of Christianity and of slavery, Voltaire was an advocate of freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and separation of church and state. Wikipedia

Mark Twain was the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835, – April 21, 1910), a Missouri-born author, essayist, and humorist. He’s known for his satirical wit, humorous prose, and vivid characters. His best-known works are The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), both considered American classics. Twain’s other works include The Innocents Abroad (1869), Roughing It (1872), and Life on the Mississippi (1883).