Brevity Quotes

• If I am to speak ten minutes, I need a week for preparation; if an hour, I am ready now.

  Woodrow Wilson

  Communication, Preparation, Needs

  Quoted in Josephus Daniels, TheWilson Era: Years of War and After (1946) See Pascal 1; Thoreau 34

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• I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time.

  Mark Twain

  Funny, Time, Humorous

  Provincial Letters: Letter XVI, December 4, 1656.

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• The more you say, the less people remember.

  Francois Fenelon

  Inspirational, People, Self Improvement

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• The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Inspirational, Motivational, Teaching

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• Brevity in writing is the best insurance for its perusal.

  Rudolf Virchow

  Writing, Science, Publication

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• Aiming at brevity, I become obscure.

  Horace

  Obscure

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• Brevity is the soul of wit.

  William Shakespeare

  Inspirational, Attitude, Communication

  'Hamlet' (1601) act 2, sc. 2, l. 90

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• Four basic premises of writing: clarity, brevity, simplicity, and humanity.

  William Zinsser

  Inspirational, Writing, Simplicity

  "Writing to Clients and Referring Professionals about Psychological Assessment". Book by J. B. Allyn (p. 164), 2012.

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• There's a great power in words, if you don't hitch too many of them together.

  Josh Billings

  Funny, Witty, Educational

  Josh Billings (1972). “Uncle Sam's Uncle Josh: Or, Josh Billings on Practically Everything, Distilled from Josh's Rum and Tansy New England Wit by Donald Day”

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• Brevity and conciseness are the parents of correction.

  Hosea Ballou

  Discovery, Parent, Brevity Of Life

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• If it takes a lot of words to say what you have in mind, give it more thought.

  Dennis Roch

  Leadership, Humorous, Silly

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• True brevity of expression consists in a man only saying what is worth saying, while avoiding all diffuse explanations of things which every one can think out for himself.

  Arthur Schopenhauer

  Men, Thinking, Expression

  Arthur Schopenhauer (2015). “Essays of Schopenhauer: Top Essays”, p.29, 谷月社

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• Good things, when short, are twice as good.

  Tom Stoppard

  Writing, Editing, Good Things

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• It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what others say in a whole book.

  Friedrich Nietzsche

  Crazy, Book, Reading

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• it wasn't by accident that the Gettysburg address was so short.

  Ernest Hemingway

  Prose Writing, Addresses, Gettysburg

  Ernest Hemingway, Carlos Baker (2003). “Ernest Hemingway Selected Letters 1917-1961”, p.594, Simon and Schuster

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• Writing is 1 percent inspiration, and 99 percent elimination.

  Louise Brooks

  Inspiration, Writing, Elimination

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• Brevity is a great charm of eloquence.

  Marcus Tullius Cicero

  Philosophical, Charm, Eloquence

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• Like all sweet dreams, it will be brief, but brevity makes sweetness, doesn't it?

  Stephen King

  Dream, Sweet, Sweet Dreams

  Stephen King (2011). “11/22/63: A Novel”, p.841, Simon and Schuster

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• Be sincere; be brief; be seated.

  Franklin D. Roosevelt

  Communication, Patriotic, Political

  "asic Public Speaking". Book by Paul L. Soper, p. 12, 1963.

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• No weapons are more potent than brevity and simplicity.

  Katherine Cecil Thurston

  Simplicity, Weapons

  Katherine Cecil Thurston (2008). “Max (EasyRead Large Edition)”, p.348, ReadHowYouWant.com

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• The wisdom of nations lies in their proverbs,
  which are brief and pithy.

  William Penn

  Inspirational, Lying, Pithy

  William Penn (1782). “The Select Works of William Penn....”, p.448

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• Brevity is the soul of lingerie.

  Dorothy Parker

  Fashion, Women, Advice

  Quoted in AlexanderWoollcott, While Rome Burns (1934) See Shakespeare 174

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• My liege, and madam, to expostulate What majesty should be, what duty is, Why day is day, night night, and time is time, Were nothing but to waste night, day and time. Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit, And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, I will be brief.

  William Shakespeare

  Night, Soul, Majesty

  William Shakespeare (1963). “Hamlet”, p.41, CUP Archive

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• Any philosophy that can be put in a nutshell belongs there.

  Sydney J. Harris

  Philosophy, Discovery, Ethics

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• This is a brief life, but in its brevity it offers us some splendid moments, some meaningful adventures.

  Rudyard Kipling

  Meaningful, Adventure, Moments

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