William Osler Quotes

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

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

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.

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.

Words are how people think. When you misuse words, you diminish your ability to think clearly and truthfully.

It's technically extremely difficult to get down what you really mean, not what you think you mean, or what you think sounds good, but what's really there, what you really have to express, in words that somehow convey that meaning in an approximate way.

Genuine good taste consists in saying much in few words, in choosing among our thoughts, in having order and arrangement in what we say, and in speaking with composure.

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.

You can't hit what you can't see.

There are people who have tremendously important things to say, but they say it so poorly that nobody would ever want to read it.

Brevity and conciseness are the parents of correction.

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.

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

I feel like if you can describe something fully and accurately, then people will be able to see it themselves - they don't need be told what to.

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

Having knowledge but lacking the power to express it clearly is no better than never having any ideas at all.

Don't write so that you can be understood, write so that you can't be misunderstood.

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

I'm not an angry person. When I write, the lawyer in me tries to make it as easy to read as possible.

Aim for brevity while avoiding jargon.

Being a good observer is a great tool to have as a writer, just taking the world in.

Do not say a little in many words but a great deal in a few.

My basic rule is to speak slowly and simply so that my audience has an opportunity to follow and think about what I am saying.

If you are knowledgeable about something and are able to talk about it, you should be able to express yourself.

Why say 'utilize' when you can say 'use'?