Verbosity Quotes

Many words are spoken when there’s nothing to say.

I'm going to make a long speech because I've not had the time to prepare a short one.

People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little.

As it is the characteristic of great wits to say much in few words, so small wits seem to have the gift of speaking much and saying nothing.

He that speaks much, is much mistaken.

They talk most who have the least to say.

Long words, fat talk they may tell us something about ourselves. Has the passion for fat in the language increased as self-confidence has waned?

Don't, Sir, accustom yourself to use big words for little matters.

During the Samuel Johnson days they had big men enjoying small talk; today we have small men enjoying big talk.

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.

Whenever I have talked to anyone at too great length, I am like a man who has drunk too much, and ashamed, doesn't know where to put himself.

Every man in it is a great man—an orator, a critic, a statesman, and therefore every man upon every question must show his oratory, his criticism, and his political abilities. The consequence is that business is drawn and spun out to immeasurable length.

Why say 'utilize' when you can say 'use'?

There are many who talk on from ignorance rather than from knowledge, and who find the former an inexhaustible fund of conversation.

People who have nothing to say are never at a loss in talking.

As usual, it occurred to me that words were the only thing that could possibly save me from this situation. This was a characteristic misunderstanding on my part. When action was needed, I was absorbed in words; for words proceeded with such difficulty from my mouth that I was intent on them and forgot all about action. It seemed to me that actions, which are dazzling, varied things, must always be accompanied by equally dazzling and equally varied words.

You live for pretentious metaphors.

I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.

… too much of a talker to be a deep thinker

Talkers are usually more articulate than doers, since talk is their specialty.

A bore is a person who opens his mouth and puts his feats in it.

The way to be a bore is to say everything.

A lot of writers fall in love with their sentences or their construction of sentences, and sometimes that's great, but not everybody is Gabriel Garcia Marquez or James Joyce. A lot of people like to pretend that they are, and they wind up not giving people a good read or enlightening them.

Those who have had anything useful to say have said it far too often, and those who have had nothing to say have been no more reticent.