Mark Batterson Quotes

If you really understand something, you can say it in the fewest words, instead of thrashing about.

With few words, one can speak the truth.

For effective communication, use brevity. Jesus said, 'Follow me.' Now that's brief! He could be brief because of all that he was that he didn't have to say.

Brevity is a great charm of eloquence.

It does not require many words to speak the truth.

Say what you have to say in the fewest possible words.

Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts.

The words of Jesus, as distinguishable from the matter in which they are embedded as diamonds in dunghills. A more precious morsel of ethics was never seen.

Wordiness is a sickness of American writing. Too many words dilute and blur ideas.

You can say a lot in a little time, if you stick to words of one syllable.

If you are telling the truth, then you can speak gently, and your words will have power.

To use many words to communicate few thoughts is everywhere the unmistakable sign of mediocrity. To gather much thought into few words stamps the man of genius.

Men who have much to say use the fewest words.

I'm trying to imitate Jesus in the fact that he said to be like children, to love children, to be as pure as children and to make yourself as innocent and to see the world through eyes of wonderment and the whole magical quality of it all.

Surely no one will consider us lacking in reverence if we say that every one of the "principles of modern salesmanship" on which business men so much pride themselves, are brilliantly exemplified in Jesus' talk and work.

Cross out as many adjectives and adverbs as you can. ... It is comprehensible when I write: "The man sat on the grass," because it is clear and does not detain one's attention. On the other hand, it is difficult to figure out and hard on the brain if I write: "The tall, narrow-chested man of medium height and with a red beard sat down on the green grass that had already been trampled down by the pedestrians, sat down silently, looking around timidly and fearfully." The brain can't grasp all that at once, and art must be grasped at once, instantaneously.

He who tells the truth says almost nothing.

[S]ince brevity is the soul of wit, And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, I will be brief.

Never use a long word where a short one will do.

Say all you have to say in the fewest possible words, or your reader will be sure to skip them; and in the plainest possible words or he will certainly misunderstand them.

To build your house on the rock is to hear what Jesus says and obey. To be foolish and build your house on the sand is to hear and ignore.

My mom would always say this thing about writing - and I've taken it into account in a lot of things in my life - which is just, "Make it shorter." Figure out what you are truly saying, whittle it down to the essence, then say that.

Jesus of Nazareth could have chosen simply to express Himself in moral precepts; but like a great poet He chose the form of the parable, wonderful short stories that entertained and clothed the moral precept in an eternal form. It is not sufficient to catch man's mind, you must also catch the imaginative faculties of his mind.

One day I will find the right words, and they will be simple.

If You can't tell it to me in one sentence, they can't put it in TV Guide.