Walter Pater Quotes

I say what I mean. I don't speak in code. That's why I am a star and ace communicator.

I still remember the first acronym I learned, BLUF: Bottom Line Up Front. I still try to communicate that way. No reason to dance around getting to the point.

I write as straight as I can, just as I walk as straight as I can, because that is the best way to get there.

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

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.

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

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

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

Many attempts to communicate are nullified by saying too much.

True eloquence consists in saying all that is necessary, and nothing but what is necessary.

The longing we have to communicate cleanly and directly with people is always obstructed by qualifications and often with concern about how our messages will be received.

Less is almost always better than more. Short words, short sentences, short speeches.

I'm a very direct person just generally. I don't use a lot of words unnecessarily. I try to get to the heart of the issue, address it and go on to the next thing.

My favourite writers are always great storytellers, like Bruce Springsteen; I adore Bruce Springsteen. I feel like he doesn't beat around the bush, and he doesn't overcomplicate things. He puts things into layman's terms and tells stories that anyone can understand.

The best things - when I really feel that I'm communicating, and when I really feel that people are getting it - are simple, straightforward recipes. I think simple is the hardest to achieve because you don't have all those elements to hide behind.

I like people who tell you what they think straight away instead of going around in circles.

Better to say something simply instead of giving people a bunch of vague metaphors to mull over.

Do not put cleverness in front of the communication.

Never mistake legibility for communication.

As for style of writing, if one has anything to say, it drops from him simply and directly, as a stone falls to the ground.

It is not necessary for a preacher to express all his thoughts in one sermon. A preacher should have three principles: first, to make a good beginning, and not spend time with many words before coming to the point; secondly, to say that which belongs to the subject in chief, and avoid strange and foreign thoughts; thirdly, to stop at the proper time.

It is excellent discipline for an author to feel that he must say all he has to say in the fewest possible words, or his reader is sure to skip them; and in the plainest possible words, or his reader will certainly misunderstand them. Generally, also, a downright fact may be told in a plain way; and we want downright facts at present more than anything else.

Sometimes one has to say difficult things, but one ought to say them as simply as one knows how.

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

A lot of critics think I'm stupid because my sentences are so simple and my method is so direct: they think these are defects. No. The point is to write as much as you know as quickly as possible.