Pithiness Quotes

Let silence be your general rule; or say only what is necessary and in few words.

Brevity - the sister of talent.

Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short.

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

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.

I shall be so brief that I have already finished.

If a thing can be said in ten words, I may be relied upon to take a hundred to say it. I ought to apologize for that. I ought to prune, pare and extirpate excess growth, but I will not. I like words—strike that, I love words—and while I am fond of the condensed and economical use of them in poetry, in song lyrics, in Twitter, in good journalism and smart advertising, I love the luxuriant profusion and mad scatter of them too.

Simplicity is the glory of expression.

Oh, I have now a mania for shortness. Whatever I read - my own or other people's works - it all seems to me not short enough.

My father always said that too many words cheapened the value of a man's speech.

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

You can suffocate a thought by expressing it with too many words.

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

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

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.

To be brief is almost a condition of being inspired.

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

To say more, is to say less.

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

With few words, one can speak the truth.

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

To say more while saying less is the secret of being simple.

Why need I volumes, if one word suffice?

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

You evidently feel that brevity is the soul of widowhood.