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 Gracián, The Art of Worldly Wisdom, translated from Spanish
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
Beware of expanding what is clear…. A literary work is produced by means of art, a book by means of ink and paper. You may produce a work in two pages, and only make a book although you fill ten volumes folio. – Joseph Joubert (1754–1824), translated from French by George H. Calvert, 1
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
I have made this [letter] longer than usual because I have not had time to make it shorter. – Blaise Pascal, Lettres Provinciales, 1657, translated from French
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
That writer does the most, who gives his reader the most knowledge, and takes from him the least time. – Charles Caleb Colton
Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do. – Author Unknown
If you bring that sentence in for a fitting, I can have it shortened by Wednesday. – M*A*S*H, Hawkeye, “The Gun”
“In good prose (says Schlegel) every word should be underlined!” that is, every word should be the right one; and then no one would be righter than another. There are no italics in Plato. – Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers
He replies nothing but monosyllables. I believe he would make three bites of a cherry. – Rabelais, Pantagruel
Any philosophy that can be put in a nutshell belongs there. – Branch Rickey
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
Brevity and conciseness are the parents of correction. – Hosea Ballou
Never be so brief as to become obscure. – Tryon Edwards
The more you say, the less people remember. The fewer the words, the greater the profit. – Francois FeNelon
It wasnt by accident that the Gettysburg address was so short. The laws of prose writing are as immutable as those of flight, of mathematics, of physics. – Ernest Hemingway
