Luc de Clapiers Quotes

The water in a vessel is sparkling; the water in the sea is dark. The small truth has words which are clear; the great truth has great silence.

A genius knows how to make himself easily understood without being obvious about it.

Clearness is the ornament of deep thought.

The wise ones fashioned speech with their thought, sifting it as grain is sifted through a sieve.

Everything that can be thought at all can be thought clearly. Everything that can be said can be said clearly. Ludwig Wittgenstein

Deep is the well of truth and long does it take to know what has fallen into its depths.

Simplicity is the outward sign and symbol of depth of thought.

Never express yourself more clearly than you are able to think.

All truth, in the long run, is only common sense clarified.

If I get the idea, and I get some clarity on how I feel about that idea, then I can safely assume I'll find the right words. I do have that confidence.

The intellect of the wise is like glass; it admits the light of heaven and reflects it.

What is grand is necessarily obscure to weak men. That which can be made explicit to the idiot is not worth my care.

If somebody writes clearly, you can pretty much tell immediately if something is shallow or deep, whereas if they write with all this duckweed on the surface, you can't tell if the stream is one inch deep or a hundred fathoms.

To speak as the common people do, to think as wise men do is style.

Easy reading is damn hard writing.

A wise man should so write (though in words understood by all men) that wise men only should be able to commend him.

The main thing is to know something and to say it.

Clarity is the counterbalance of profound thoughts.

The obvious is that which is never seen until someone expresses it simply.

The ability to express an idea is well nigh as important as the idea itself.

The profoundest thoughts of the philosophers have something trickle about them. A lot disappears in order for something to suddenly appear in the palm of the hand.

Everything deep is also simple and can be reproduced simply as long as its reference to the whole truth is maintained. But what matters is not what is witty but what is true.

In very simple language, Morrie always seems to be able to explain something that other people would take a chapter for, you know.

Let's have days and days of brilliant clarity, etched and limpid, cool and surgical.

As it is the characteristic of great wits to say much in few words, so small wits seem to have the gift of speaking much and saying nothing.