While I was researching yesterday’s blog post I came across a number of inspiring quotations about brevity and simplicity. But since the post was concerned with keeping things short and sweet, I couldn’t bring myself to include them all.
I thought today I’d do a roundup of some of the quotes that didn’t make the cut. There are some real nuggets of gold in here. Enjoy!
On brevity…
“There’s a great power in words, if you don’t hitch too many of them together.”
– Josh Billings, 19th-century American humourist (1818–1885)
“The more you say, the less people remember. The fewer the words, the greater the profit.”
– François Fénelon, 17th-century French Roman Catholic archbishop, theologian, poet and writer (1651–1715)
“Good things, when short, are twice as good.”
– Baltasar Gracían, 17th-century Spanish Jesuit and writer (1601–1658)
“It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what others say in a whole book.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche, 19th-century German philosopher, poet, composer and philologist (1844–1900)
“Be sincere; be brief; be seated.”
– Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945), 32nd president of the United States of America, on public speaking
“Make sure you have finished speaking before your audience has finished listening.”
– Dorothy Sarnoff, American operatic soprano, musical theatre actress and self-help guru (1914–2008)
“The right word may be effective, but no word was ever as effective as a rightly timed pause.”
– Mark Twain, American author and humourist (1835–1910)
On simplicity…
“Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.”
– Charles Mingus, American jazz musician, composer and civil rights activist (1922–1979)
“The finest language is mostly made up of simple unimposing words.”
– George Eliot, British novelist, journalist and translator (1819–1880)
“Use the smallest word that does the job.”
– E.B. White, American writer and co-author of the widely used writer’s style guide The Elements of Style
“Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people.”
– W.B. Yeats, Irish poet and playwright (1865–1939)
Here’s an idea: Why not practise your succinctness by signing up for a Twitter account? It’s the perfect platform for brevity as Twitter updates must be 140 characters or less – and that’s including spaces and punctuation. Learn how to make the most of your tweets with one of the eBooks in our Speaker Resource Centre:
• Newbies Guide to Twitter
• Using and Dealing With Twitter
• Twitter Secrets
And don’t forget to follow us on Twitter at @InspireSpeakers. To your tweeting success!
