Brevity Quotes and Sayings

Brevity is the soul of wit.
William Shakespeare

Brevity is the soul of lingerie.
Dorothy Parker

I strive to be brief, and I become obscure.
Horace

But the shortest works are always the best.
Jean de La Fontaine

Good things, when short, are twice as good.
Baltasar Gracian

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

Men of few words are the best men.
William Shakespeare

Whatever advice you give, be brief.
Horace

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

Trust the man who hesitates in his speech and is quick and steady in action, but beware of long arguments and long beards.
George Santayana

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

A short saying often contains much wisdom.
Sophocles

Good things, when short, are twice as good.
Baltasar Gracian

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

I have made this letter longer than usual, because I lack the time to make it short.
Blaise Pascal

The present letter is a very long one, simply because I had no leisure to make it shorter.
Blaise Pascal

Brevity is the best recommendation of speech, whether in a senator or an orator.
Marcus Tullius Cicero

Brevity may be the soul of wit, but not when someone’s saying “I love you.
Judith Viorst

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

Be sincere; be brief; be seated.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt

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

There’s a great power in words, if you don’t hitch too many of them together.
Josh Billings

Four basic premises of writing: clarity, brevity, simplicity, and humanity.
William Zinsser

If I am to speak ten minutes, I need a week for preparation; if fifteen minutes, three days; if half an hour, two days; if an hour, I am ready now.
Woodrow Wilson

The fewer the words, the better the prayer.
Martin Luther

Brevity is the best recommendation of speech, whether in a senator or an orator.
Marcus Tullius Cicero

Brevity and conciseness are the parents of correction.
Hosea Ballou

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

Those who make the worst use of their time are the first to complain of its brevity.
Jean de la Bruyere

Talk low, talk slow, and don’t say too much.
John Wayne