To use many words to communicate few thoughts is everywhere the unmistakable sign of mediocrity. To gather much thought into few words stamps the man of genius.
Brevity - the sister of talent.
We know that he has, more than any other man, the gift of compressing the largest amount of words into the smallest amount of thought.
British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald
The aphorism in which I am the first master among Germans, are the forms of 'eternity'; my ambition is to say in ten sentences what everyone else says in a book - what everyone else does not say in a book.
Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short.
There is need of brevity, that the thought may run on.
Men who have much to say use the fewest words.
The Constitution is an equally forthright piece of work and quite succinct ... giving the complete operating instructions for a nation of 250 million people. The manual for a Toyota Camry, which only seats five, is four times as long.
Be sincere, be brief, be seated.
[S]ince brevity is the soul of wit, And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, I will be brief.
If I could sum it up in 50 words, I wouldn't have needed to write a whole novel about it.
Anything that can be put in a nut shell should remain there.
It is a happy art to know when one has said enough. I would leave my hearers wishing me to say more rather than give them cause toshow, by their inattention, that I had said too much.
The best sentence? The shortest.
When I struggle to be terse, I end by being obscure.
Lyrically, 'less words mean more' is a pretty good rule of thumb. Try to cut out the fat and get to the meat of what you're saying.
Whatever is worth saying, can be stated in fifty words or less.
I shall be so brief that I have already finished.
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.
Say what you have to say and the first time you come to a sentence with a grammatical ending - sit down.
It is when I struggle to be brief that I become obscure.
I don't care how much a man talks, if he only says it in a few words.
I believe most things can be said in a few lines.
A good opening and a good ending make for a good film provide they come close together.
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.
