"What is the greatest surprise you have found about life?" a university student asked me several years ago. "The brevity of it,"… — Billy Graham Copy Share Image
“The story of a life can be as long or as short as the teller wishes. Whether the life is tragic or… — Michel Houellebecq Copy Share Image
If the hand be held between the discharge-tube and the screen, the darker shadow of the bones is seen within the slightly… — Anonymous Copy Share Image
... if variations useful to any organic being do occur, assuredly individuals thus characterized will have the best chance of being perserved… — Charles Darwin Copy Share Image
Much of the magical effect that poetry gives of rendering everything it touches pellucid comes from the necessity of compression that it… — Laura Riding Copy Share Image
One false word, one extra word, and somebody's thinking about how they have to buy paper towels at the store. Brevity is… — Patricia Marx Copy Share Image
Teach him a certain refinement in sorting out and selecting his arguments, with an affection for relevance and so for brevity. Above… — Michel de Montaigne Copy Share Image
We think that play and fairytales belong to childhood - how shortsighted that is! As though we would want at any time… — Friedrich Nietzsche Copy Share Image
“The present life of man upon earth, O King, seems to me in comparison with that time which is unknown to us… — Anonymous Copy Share Image
It's no use telling us that something was 'mysterious' or 'loathsome' or 'awe-inspiring' or 'voluptuous.' By direct description, by metaphor and simile,… — C. S. Lewis Copy Share Image
Every epigram should resemble a bee; it should have sting, honey, and brevity. — Martial Copy Share Image
If it takes a lot of words to say what you have in mind, give it more thought. — Dennis Roch Copy Share Image
Four basic premises of writing: clarity, brevity, simplicity, and humanity. — William Zinsser Copy Share Image
Trust the man who hesitates in his speech and is quick and steady in action, but beware of long arguments and long… — George Santayana Copy Share Image
I'm a Ford, not a Lincoln. My addresses will never be as eloquent as Mr. Lincoln's. But I will do my very… — Gerald R. Ford Copy Share Image
It is not a great Xerxes army of words, but a compact Greek ten thousand that march safely down to posterity. — James Russell Lowell Copy Share Image
youth, balancing itself upon hope, is forever in extremes: its expectations are continually aroused only to be baffled, and disappointment, like a… — Letitia Elizabeth Landon Copy Share Image
The trick to writing an aphorism is to place a period at the point where you're inclined to say, "in other words… — Robert Breault Copy Share Image
Honorable Senators: My sincerest thanks I offer you. Conserve the firm foundations of our institutions. Do your work with the spirit of… — Calvin Coolidge Copy Share Image
I confess to wincing every so often at a poorly chosen word, a mangled sentence, an expression of emotion that seems indulgent… — Barack Obama Copy Share Image
What is the real function, the essential function, the supreme function, of language? Isn't it merely to convey ideas and emotions? Certainly.… — Mark Twain Copy Share Image
“Lycurgus, who ordered that a great piece of money should be but of an inconsiderable value, on the contrary would allow no… — Plutarch Copy Share Image
“This is a short book because most books about writing are filled with bullshit. Fiction writers, present company included, don't understand very… — Stephen King Copy Share Image
The public, as a whole, finds reassurance in longevity, and, after the necessary interlude of reaction, is disposed to recognize extreme old… — Vita Sackville-West Copy Share Image
“Flowers remind me of the beauty and brevity of life. They teach patience as you await some to bloom, enhancing their beauty.… — Sanjo Jendayi Copy Share Image
Folk melodies are the embodiment of an artistic perfection of the highest order; in fact, they are models of the way in… — Bela Bartok Copy Share Image
He will see himself and life and the world as truly as our human limitations will permit; realizing the brevity and minuteness… — Bertrand Russell Copy Share Image
