Quotes about brevity

"Brevity and conciseness are the parents of correction."

Ballou, Hosea on brevity   

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

Billings, Josh on brevity
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"Brevity is the best recommendation of speech, whether in a senator or an orator."

Cicero, Marcus T. on brevity   

"Brevity is a great charm of eloquence."

Cicero, Marcus T. on brevity   

"Never be so brief as to become obscure."

Edwards, Tryon on brevity   

"The more you say, the less people remember. The fewer the words, the greater the profit."

FeNelon, Francois on brevity
3 fans of this quote   

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

Gracian, Baltasar on brevity
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"It wasn't by accident that the Gettysburg address was so short. The laws of prose writing are as immutable as those of flight, of mathematics, of physics."

Hemingway, Ernest on brevity   

"I strive to be brief, and I become obscure."

Horace on brevity   

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

Jefferson, Thomas on brevity
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"It is no great art to say something briefly when, like Tacitus, one has something to say; when one has nothing to say, however, and none the less writes a whole book and makes truth into a liar -- that I call an achievement."

Lichtenberg, Georg C. on brevity   

"The fewer the words, the better the prayer."

Luther, Martin on brevity
5 fans of this quote   

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

Nietzsche, Friedrich on brevity
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"Brevity is the soul of wit, and tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes."

Shakespeare, William on brevity   

"If you would be pungent, be brief; for it is with words as with sunbeams -- the more they are condensed, the deeper they burn."

Southey, Robert on brevity   

"I will be brief. Not nearly so brief as Salvador Dali, who gave the world's shortest speech. He said I will be so brief I have already finished, and he sat down."

Wilson, Edward O. on brevity