Frank A. Clark Quotes

Being able to write an idea down succinctly doesn't make that idea any better than one which rambles on a bit. It just comes to the point sooner.

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

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

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

He has the gift of compressing the largest amount of words into the smallest amount of thoughts.

Brevity: To say at once whatever is to be said.

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.

My stories are very compact. I want them to say the most complex things in the simplest way.

I'm fighting against the bad poet who is prone to using too many words.

My purpose in public address and in speech is really encapsulated in three C's: clear, concise, correct. No overblowing rhetoric or anything like that. As simple as possible: clear, concise, correct.

One mistake with beginners in writing is, that they think it important to spin out something long. It is a great deal better not to write more than a page or two, unless you have something to say, and can write it correctly.

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

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

Use no superfluous word, no adjective, which does not reveal something.

All pleasantry should be short; and it might even be as well were the serious short also.

There is need of brevity, that the thought may run on.

A book should be luminous not voluminous.

A parsimony of words prodigal of sense.

Never use five words if you can get away with one, eh? I've known dead men talk more than you do.

I don't care how much a man talks, if he only says it in a few words.

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.

Verbosity leads to unclear, inarticulate things.

It is excellent discipline for an author to feel that he must say all that he has to say in the fewest possible words, or his readers is sure to skip them.

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