Therefore, since brevity is th...

Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit, And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, I will be brief

~ William Shakespeare, Hamlet~

The wisdom of nations lies in ...

The wisdom of nations lies in their proverbs, which are brief and pithy.

~William Penn~

The present letter is a very l...

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~

The present letter is a very l...

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~

The most valuable of all talen...

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

~Thomas Jefferson~

The more you say, the less peo...

The more you say, the less people remember. The fewer the words, the greater the profit.

~Francois Fenelon~

The fewer the words, the bette...

The fewer the words, the better prayer.

~Martin Luther~

Never be so brief as to become...

Never be so brief as to become obscure.

~Tryon Edwards~

He replies nothing but monosyl...

He replies nothing but monosyllables. I believe he would make three bites of a cherry.

~Rabelais, Pantagruel~

Let thy speech be short, compr...

Let thy speech be short, comprehending much in few words.

~Bible~

It wasn't by accident that the...

It wasn't 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~

It is with words as with sunbe...

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

~Robert Southey~

It is no great art to say some...

It is no great art to say something briefly when, like Tacitus, one has something to say; when one has nothing to say, however, and none the less writes a whole book and makes truth into a liar -- that I call an achievement.

~Georg C. Lichtenberg~

It is my ambition to say in te...

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~

If you can't write your idea o...

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

~David Belasco~

If you bring that sentence in ...

If you bring that sentence in for a fitting, I can have it shortened by Wednesday.

~M*A*S*H, Hawkeye, "The Gun"~

If it takes a lot of words to ...

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

~Dennis Roth~

If any man will draw up his ca...

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~

I will be brief. Not nearly so...

I will be brief. Not nearly so brief as Salvador Dali, who gave the world's shortest speech. He said I will be so brief I have already finished, and he sat down.

~Edward O. Wilson~

Brevity is the soul of wit, an...

Brevity is the soul of wit, and tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes.

~William Shakespeare~