William Stafford Quotes

The finest words in the world are only vain sounds if you can't understand them. The best sentence? The shortest.

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

No one can speak well, unless he thoroughly understands his subject.

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

A little inaccuracy sometimes saves a ton of explanation.

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.

I strive to be brief but I become obscure.

I believe most things can be said in a few lines.

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

I try to just communicate what I want done as clearly and simply as possible.

I labor to be brief, and manage to be obscure.

If we are understood, more words are unnecessary; if we are not likely to be understood, they are useless.

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.

You have to really know what you're saying.

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.

No man pleases by silence; many I please by speaking briefly.

The perfection of style consists in the use of the exact speech necessary to convey the sense in the fewest words consistent with perspicuity, at the same time having regard to appropriateness and harmony of expression. Its greater excellencies are directness, accuracy, appropriateness and perspicuity.

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.

To be brief is almost a condition of being inspired.

Never be so brief as to become obscure.

Why need I volumes, if one word suffice?

In labouring to be concise, I become obscure.

Those who write clearly have readers, those who write obscurely have commentators.

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

I strive to be brief, and I become obscure.