Steven Pinker Quotes

In an aphorism, aptness counts for more than truth.

An aphorism ought to be entirely isolated from the surrounding world like a little work of art and complete in itself like a hedgehog.

The excellence of aphorisms consists not so much in the expression of some rare or abstruse sentiment, as in the comprehension of some useful truth in a few words.

Aphorisms are not true or false, but pointed or flat.

An epigram often flashes light into regions where reason shines but dimly.

They write them long because they can't write them short.

Brevity - the sister of talent.

With few words, one can speak the truth.

APHORISM, n. Predigested wisdom. The flabby wine-skin of his brain Yields to some pathologic strain, And voids from its unstored abysm The driblet of an aphorism. "The Mad Philosopher," 1697

Aphorisms have never seduced anybody, but they have fooled some into considering themselves worldly-wise.

A book should be luminous not voluminous.

There are occasions when the simplest and fewest words surpass in effect all the wealth of rhetorical amplification.

If you can't be smart or funny, be brief.

Speak on, but be not over-tedious.

Conciseness is underrated

He who knows others is clever; He who knows himself has discernment.

With each passing year, one has less to say, and knows better how to say it.

Apothegms form a short cut to much knowledge.

What a labour writing is ... making one sentence do the work of a page; that's what I call hard work.

Aiming at brevity, I become obscure.

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

When I struggle to be terse, I end by being obscure.

A maxim is the exact and noble expression of an important and indisputable truth. Good maxims are the germs of all excellence; when firmly fixed on the memory, they nourish the will.

A clever mind is not a heart. Knowledge doesn't really care, wisdom does.

In a way, the main fault of all books is that they are too long.