Brevity

It is with words as with sunbeams.  The more they are condensed, the deeper they burn.  ~Robert Southey

Good things, when short, are twice as good.  ~Baltasar Gracian, The Art of Worldly Wisdom


It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what other men say in whole books - what other men do not say in whole books.  ~Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols


Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,
And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,
I will be brief.
~William Shakespeare, Hamlet


The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.  ~Thomas Jefferson


A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts.  ~William Strunk, Jr., The Elements of Style, 1918


If it takes a lot of words to say what you have in mind, give it more thought.  ~Dennis Roth


The present letter is a very long one, simply because I had no leisure to make it shorter.  ~Blaise Pascal, translated from French, Lettres Provinciales, XVI, 1656


In composing, as a general rule, run your pen through every other word you have written; you have no idea what vigor it will give your style.  ~Sydney Smith


If you bring that sentence in for a fitting, I can have it shortened by Wednesday.  ~M*A*S*H, Hawkeye, "The Gun"


If any man will draw up his case, and put his name at the foot of the first page, I will give him an immediate reply.  Where he compels me to turn over the sheet, he must wait my leisure.  ~Lord Sandwich


Brevity is the soul of lingerie.  ~Dorothy Parker


If you can't write your idea on the back of my calling card, you don't have a clear idea.  ~David Belasco

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