Concise Quotes - Page 2

• A story should, to please, at least seem true,
  Be apropos, well told, concise, and new:
  And whenso'er it deviates from these rules,
  The wise will sleep, and leave applause to fools.

  Benjamin Stillingfleet

  Wise, Sleep, Fool

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• Aphorism, n.: A concise, clever statement you don’t think of until too late.

  James Alexander Thom

  Clever, Thinking, Too Late

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• Good web text has a lot in common with good print text. It's plain, concise, concrete and 'transparent': even on a personal site the text shouldn't draw attention to itself, only to its subject.

  Crawford Kilian

  Attention, Common, Site

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• The fact of the attempted suicide by Augusto Martinez was explained in a concise and exact form by our government in a communique. There is absolutely nothing else to add.

  Che Guevara

  Suicide, Government, Add

  Source: guevaristas.org

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• It will be my earnest aim that The New York Times give the news, all the news, in concise and attractive form, in language that is permissible in good society, and give it as early if not earlier, than it can be learned through any other reliable medium; to give the news impartially, without fear or favor, regardless of party, sect, or interest involved; to make of the columns of The New York Times a forum for the consideration of all questions of public importance, and to that end to invite intelligent discussion from all shades of opinion.

  Adolph Ochs

  New York, Party, Intelligent

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• I think that the more alien and strange a world or situation is, the more concise you have to be if you want the reader to follow you. It depends on what effect you're looking for.

  Karin Tidbeck

  Thinking, World, Want

  Source: www.raintaxi.com

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• I'm just getting to know myself. I'm no wherwhere near to being concise about it yet. I can't define myself. Wait a minute - I'm angry, I'm funny and I'm trying.

  James Marsters

  Waiting, Trying, Minutes

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• What modern technology has done has afforded us the luxury of abbreviation and being concise with time, I think. Things that it would take you a week to do can now be done in a day, which is absolutely awesome because you can concentrate on the bigger picture.

  Justin Broadrick

  Technology, Thinking, Luxury

  Source: pitchfork.com

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• Crude at first [the short story] received a literary polish in the press, but its dominant quality remained. It was concise and condense, yet suggestive. It was delightfully extravagant - or a miracle of understatement

  Bret Harte

  Miracle, Quality, Stories

  Bret Harte (2001). “The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Writings”, p.218, Penguin

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• A good writer should be able to write comedic work that made you laugh, and scary stuff that made you scared, and fantasy or science fiction that imbued you with a sense of wonder, and mainstream journalism that gave you clear and concise information in a way that you wanted it.

  Neil Gaiman

  Writing, Laughing, Scary

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• Of all the forms of exercise that I have done, Power Plate® training is the most concise. If I start my session at 9.30am, I know I can be at my desk by 10.15am and I can even fit in a workout before rehearsals. Power Plate® exercise is not at all intimidating, and I know that in a short session I have had a complete workout.

  Maureen Lipman

  Workout, Exercise, Training

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• I think part of being a good screenwriter is being as concise as possible.

  Eric Roth

  Thinking, Screenwriters

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• A good simile,--as concise as a king's declaration of love.

  Laurence Sterne

  Kings, Simile, Declaration

  Laurence Sterne (1790). “The Works of Laurence Sterne: Complete in Eight Volumes”, p.221

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• As a journalist you have to think quickly, you're exposed to all types of people and situations and you've got to synthesize your thoughts in a very clear and concise way and write them down quickly. Those were all things that have proven really useful in my life as a television writer.

  Frank Spotnitz

  Writing, Thinking, People

  Source: movieweb.com

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• I am a compulsive and concise shopper.

  Zac Posen

  Shoppers

  "Five things I know about style: Zac Posen". Interview with Shahesta Shaitly, www.theguardian.com. April 23, 2011.

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• Does a black person make them an African American? No. There are Hispanics that are very, very dark skinned so the word has lost its meaning, it's not a very concise or proper word to use even today and it wasn't then.

  Pam Grier

  Dark, African American, Black

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• There's always a tension between wanting to write a really concise, instant gratification type song that gets under your skin the first time you hear it, and wanting to really stretch out. I think it's a healthy tension.

  Andrew Bird

  Song, Writing, Thinking

  Interview with Joshua Klein, pitchfork.com. May 22, 2007.

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• There are a set of men who go about making purchases upon credit, and buying estates they have not wherewithal to pay for; and having done this, their next step is to fill the newspapers with paragraphs of the scarcity of money and the necessity of a paper emission, then to have a legal tender under the pretense of supporting its credit, and when out, to depreciate it as fast as they can, get a deal of it for a little price, and cheat their creditors; and this is the concise history of paper money schemes.

  Thomas Paine

  Men, Scarcity, Credit

  Thomas Paine (1830). “Brief sketch of the life of Thomas Paine. Common sense. Epistle to Quakers. The crisis. Public good. Letter to the Abbe Raynal. Dissertations on government, the affairs of the bank, and paper money. Miscellaneous”, p.405

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• Perhaps the most concise summary of enlightenment would be: transcending dualism . ... Dualism is the conceptual division of the world into categories ... human perception is by nature a dualistic phenomenon - which makes the quest for enlightenment an uphill struggle, to say the least.

  Douglas Hofstadter

  Struggle, Perception, Enlightenment

  "Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid". Book by Douglas Hofstadter, 1979.

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• Tacitus has written an entire work on the manners of the Germans. This work is short, but it comes from the pen of Tacitus, who was always concise, because he saw everything at a glance.

  Tacitus

  Saws, Manners, Glances

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• I also try to discipline myself when I get into a situation... and I'm trying to think of an answer, instead of being verbose, which is a tendency that I have, to be concise. Verbosity leads to unclear, inarticulate things.

  Dan Quayle

  Thinking, Discipline, Trying

  Los Angeles Times (attributed to an earlier Associated Press interview), October 30, 1988.

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• Of all eloquence a nickname is the most concise; of all arguments the most unanswerable.

  William Hazlitt

  Names, Argument, Eloquence

  William Hazlitt (1839). “Sketches and Essays”, p.219

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• The Tenth Commandment sends a message to socialists, to egalitarians, to people obsessed with fairness, to American presidential candidates in the year 2000 - to everyone who believes that wealth should be redistributed. And that message is clear and concise: Go to Hell.

  P. J. O'Rourke

  Believe, Years, America

  P. J. O'Rourke (2011). “Eat the Rich: A Treatise on Economics”, p.160, Pan Macmillan

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• Oh, it doesn't work at all. That's the problem! It's an endless, halting parade of inspections, bribes, and nonsense-but if you're aboard a Texas vessel, you'll find less inconvenience along the way." "It's because of their guns!" declared Mr. Henderson, once more escaping his reverie, bobbing out of it as if to gasp for air. "Concise, my love." Mrs. Henderson gave him a smile. "And correct. Texans are heavily armed and often impatient. They don't need to be transporting arms and gunpowder to create a great nuisance for anyone who stops them, so they tend to be stopped...less often.

  Cherie Priest

  Gun, Air, Texas

  Cherie Priest (2012). “Dreadnought”, p.134, Pan Macmillan

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• It is called the First Amendment. ...Simple words marching in seried ranks. Compact, concise. To the point. Clear and pure. It's freedom's music.

  Jack Valenti

  Simple, Firsts, Censorship

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