Stendhal Quotes

Simple and to the point is always the best way to get your point across.

I never want to confuse people or go over their heads.

Words easy to be understood do often hit the mark; when high and learned ones do only pierce the air.

A multitude of words is probably the most formidable means of blurring and obscuring thought. There is no thought, however momentous, that cannot be expressed lucidly in 200 words.

One should aim not at being possible to understand, but at being impossible to misunderstand.

I see but one rule: to be clear. If I am not clear, all my world crumbles to nothing.

Clarity in language depends on clarity in thought.

Minimalism has a connotation of being reductive, and not in the best way. 'Brevetist' is a better term. I'm trying to be as concise as possible and still getting across to the reader. When information is delivered in that way, it is very satisfying to me.

The chief virtue that language can have is clearness, and nothing detracts from it so much as the use of unfamiliar words.

Clarity of communication is important.

Do not put cleverness in front of the communication.

The difficulty is not to write, but to write what you mean.

To make yourself understood you have to think plain and write plain.

I wish my prose to be transparent—I don't want the reader to stumble over me; I want him to look through what I'm saying to what I'm describing. I don't want him ever to say, Oh, goodness, how nicely written this is. That would be a failure.

The simpler you say it, the more eloquent it is.

Say it clear, and it will be beautiful.

The single most important lesson of effective communication is this: Focus on clarity. Concentrate on precisions. Don’t worry about constructing beautiful sentences. Beauty comes from meaning, not language. Accuracy is the most effective style of all.

Everything that can be said, can be said clearly.

Short, sweet, and to the point. Clear writing, and therefore clear commands, comes from clear thinking. Think simple.

Speak properly, and in as few words as you can, but always plainly; for the end of speech is not ostentation, but to be understood.

Crystal-clear thinking is one of the things we look for - not a fancy slide pitch, but crystal-clear thinking.

Where questions of style and exposition are concerned I try to follow a simple maxim: if you can't say it clearly you don't understand it yourself.

Don't use words too big for the subject. Don't say 'infinitely' when you mean 'very'; otherwise you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite.

He that will write well in any tongue, must follow this counsel of Aristotle, to speak as the common people do, to think as wise men do: and so should every man understand him, and the judgment of wise men allow him.