Brevity Quotes

86 Brevity quotes by 71 unique authors

The soul of wit may become the very body of untruth. However elegant and memorable, brevity can never, in the nature of things, do justice… — Aldous Huxley
I confess to wincing every so often at a poorly chosen word, a mangled sentence, an expression of emotion that seems indulgent or overly practiced.… — Barack Obama
The old, slow, creaking descriptions are a thing of the past; today the rule is brevity - but every word must be supercharged, high-voltage. — Yevgeny Zamyatin
That a thing made by hand, the work and thought of a single craftsman, can endure much longer than its maker, through centuries in fact,… — Susan Vreeland
The word itself has another color. Itâ€™s not a word with any resonance, although the e was once pronounced. There is only the bump now… — William H. Gass
The theatre is certainly a place for learning about the brevity of human glory: oh all those wonderful glittering absolutely vanished pantomime! Now I shall… — Iris Murdoch
...when a sentence is made stronger, it usually becomes shorter. Thus, brevity is a by-product of vigor. — William Strunk, Jr.
[Six principles that make for a good story:] 1. Absence of lengthy verbiage of a political-social-economic nature; 2. total objectivity; 3. truthful descriptions of persons… — Anton Chekhov
Let us return to 'no'. It has the charm of brevity. — Sharon Lee
This is going to take a while. I'm a fantasy author. We have trouble with the concept of brevity. — Brandon Sanderson
How very paltry and limited the normal human intellect is, and how little lucidity there is in the human consciousness, may be judged from the… — Arthur Schopenhauer
This is a brief life, but in its brevity it offers us some splendid moments, some meaningful adventures. — Rudyard Kipling
Like all sweet dreams, it will be brief, but brevity makes sweetness, doesn't it? — Stephen King
My liege, and madam, to expostulate What majesty should be, what duty is, Why day is day, night night, and time is time, Were nothing… — William Shakespeare
It was almost funny. Life seemed downright accidental in its brevity, and death a punch line to a lousy joke. — Maureen Johnson
[S]ince brevity is the soul of wit, And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes, I will be brief. — William Shakespeare
There came to him an image of manâ€™s whole life upon the earth. It seemed to him that all manâ€™s life was like a tiny… — Thomas Wolfe
Our hearts, they need a mirror, Tessa. We see our better selves in the eyes of those who love us. And there is a beauty… — Cassandra Clare
In labouring to be concise, I become obscure. — Horace
What is a epigram? A dwarfish whole. Its body brevity, and wit its soul. — Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Who Wrote These Brevity Quotes

71 authors contributed a total of 86 Brevity Quotes, led by these top contributors: