--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Verbosity is the enemy of eloquence." description: "\"“Verbosity is the enemy of eloquence.”\" — Rebecca Douglass" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/202/rebecca-douglass-271919_quote_verbosity-is-the-enemy-of-eloquence-1639_1639783.jpg" --- # Verbosity is the enemy of eloquence. ![“Verbosity is the enemy of eloquence.” quote by Rebecca Douglass](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/202/rebecca-douglass-271919_quote_verbosity-is-the-enemy-of-eloquence-1639_1639783.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/202/rebecca-douglass-271919_quote_verbosity-is-the-enemy-of-eloquence-1639_1639783.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/202/rebecca-douglass-271919_quote_verbosity-is-the-enemy-of-eloquence-1639_1639783.jpg) > ““Verbosity is the enemy of eloquence.”” Rebecca Douglass ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Excessive wordiness weakens clear expression. **In simple terms:** Too many words ruin clarity. Key Takeaway Prefer concise language. Themes Communication Writing Clarity Mood thoughtful pragmatic Type advice observation When to use this quote - Public speaking - Editing - Teaching writing Key Concepts Brevity Eloquence Rhetoric Questions to Reflect On - When is verbosity beneficial? - How does brevity affect persuasion? A Different Perspective Sometimes detail is needed for nuance. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Eloquence](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/eloquence/) [Enemy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/enemy/) [Verbosity](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/verbosity/) ## Related quotes > [Verbosity leads to unclear, inarticulate things.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/verbosity-leads-to-unclear-inarticulate-things/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [“You should really restrict these flights of fancy to your fiction, where I can redline them on grounds of verbosity and excessive allusion.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/m-pierce/you-should-really-restrict-these-flights-of-fancy-to-your-fiction/) [M. Pierce](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/m-pierce/) > [“He gave me a look of great contempt; as I supposed, for venturing, even by implication, to draw a parallel between a lack of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anthony-powell/he-gave-me-a-look-of-great-contempt-as-i-supposed-for-venturing-even/) [Anthony Powell](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anthony-powell/) > [Our language, once homely and colloquial, seeks to aggrandize our meanest activities with polysyllabic terms or it retreats from frankness into a stammering verbosity.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mary-mccarthy/our-language-once-homely-and-colloquial-seeks-to-aggrandize-our/) [Mary McCarthy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mary-mccarthy/) > [I unintentionally slaughter sacred cows in public venues and speak my mind even when I have lost it. I often open my mouth just…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rock-cowles/i-unintentionally-slaughter-sacred-cows-in-public-venues-and-speak-my/) [Rock Cowles](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rock-cowles/) > [“You have a faculty for defining the simplest in terms of the grandiose, so that a poor devil like me can't understand it.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/malcolm-bradbury/you-have-a-faculty-for-defining-the-simplest-in-terms-of-the/) [Malcolm Bradbury](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/malcolm-bradbury/) > [Verbosity was an established Victorian trait.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/matthew-engel/verbosity-was-an-established-victorian-trait/) [Matthew Engel](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/matthew-engel/) > [“Your father had other plans for you. Alas, his breakdown and untimely demise derailed everything he'd worked to accomplish. He would not approve of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/laird-barron/your-father-had-other-plans-for-you-alas-his-breakdown-and-untimely/) [Laird Barron](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/laird-barron/) > [“While I did that, my own eyes got wet, not fakely, and I blinked the wetness away because it was not my privilege to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/adam-levin/while-i-did-that-my-own-eyes-got-wet-not-fakely-and-i-blinked-the/) [Adam Levin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/adam-levin/) > [“While Nape was making the bread and Dryas boiling the ram, Daphnis and Chloe had time to go forth as far as the ivy-bush;…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/longus-longos/while-nape-was-making-the-bread-and-dryas-boiling-the-ram-daphnis-and/) Longus (Longos > [Sesquipedalian verbosity is just another notion of challenging the zenith mind.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/jasmina-siderovski/sesquipedalian-verbosity-is-just-another-notion-of-challenging-the/) [Jasmina Siderovski](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/jasmina-siderovski/) > [“Long-bodied, long-worded Johnny cocked an ear. "A tintamarrous bombilation!" he remarked. "Sounds more like a fight to me," Monk muttered. Ham said, "That, short-and-hairy,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kenneth-robeson/long-bodied-long-worded-johnny-cocked-an-ear-a-tintamarrous/) Kenneth Robeson > [I also try to discipline myself when I get into a situation... and I'm trying to think of an answer, instead of being verbose,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dan-quayle/i-also-try-to-discipline-myself-when-i-get-into-a-situation-and-i-m/) [Dan Quayle](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dan-quayle/) > [He draweth out the thread of his verbosity finer than the staple of his argument.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-shakespeare/he-draweth-out-the-thread-of-his-verbosity-finer-than-the-staple-of/) [William Shakespeare](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-shakespeare/) > [The more one reads poetry, the less tolerant one becomes of any sort of verbosity, be that in political or philosophical discourse, be that…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/joseph-brodsky/the-more-one-reads-poetry-the-less-tolerant-one-becomes-of-any-sort/) [Joseph Brodsky](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/joseph-brodsky/) ## More Eloquence quotes > [There should be in eloquence that which is pleasing and that which is real; but that which is pleasing should itself be real.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/blaise-pascal/there-should-be-in-eloquence-that-which-is-pleasing-and-that-which-is/) [Blaise Pascal](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/blaise-pascal/) > [Fie on the eloquence that leaves us craving itself, not things!](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/michel-de-montaigne/fie-on-the-eloquence-that-leaves-us-craving-itself-not-things/) [Michel de Montaigne](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/michel-de-montaigne/) > [ \[T\]here are, at bottom, basically two ways to order social affairs, Coercively, through the mechanisms of the state - what we can call political… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ed-crane/t-here-are-at-bottom-basically-two-ways-to-order-social-affairs/) [Ed Crane](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ed-crane/) > [Drudgery, calamity, exasperation, want, are instructors in eloquence and wisdom.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-waldo-emerson/drudgery-calamity-exasperation-want-are-instructors-in-eloquence-and/) [Ralph Waldo Emerson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-waldo-emerson/) > [Among all the valuable things of this world, the word is the most precious. For in the word one can find a light which…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/hazrat-inayat-khan/among-all-the-valuable-things-of-this-world-the-word-is-the-most/) [Hazrat Inayat Khan](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/hazrat-inayat-khan/) > [“Your goodness must have some edge to it -- else it is none.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-waldo-emerson/your-goodness-must-have-some-edge-to-it-else-it-is-none/) [Ralph Waldo Emerson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-waldo-emerson/) > [Forensics is eloquence and reduction.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/gertrude-stein/forensics-is-eloquence-and-reduction/) [Gertrude Stein](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/gertrude-stein/) > [“What is called eloquence in the forum is commonly found to be rhetoric in the study.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/henry-david-thoreau/what-is-called-eloquence-in-the-forum-is-commonly-found-to-be/) [Henry David Thoreau](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/henry-david-thoreau/) > [Eloquence is the appropriate organ of the highest personal energy.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-waldo-emerson/eloquence-is-the-appropriate-organ-of-the-highest-personal-energy/) [Ralph Waldo Emerson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-waldo-emerson/) > [Philosophy may be dodged, eloquence cannot.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/edgar-quinet/philosophy-may-be-dodged-eloquence-cannot/) [Edgar Quinet](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/edgar-quinet/) > [Eloquence is a painting of thought; and thus those who, after having painted it, add something more, make a picture instead of a portrait.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/blaise-pascal/eloquence-is-a-painting-of-thought-and-thus-those-who-after-having/) [Blaise Pascal](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/blaise-pascal/) > [The notion of directing a film is the invention of critics - the whole eloquence of cinema is achieved in the editing room.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anonymous/the-notion-of-directing-a-film-is-the-invention-of-critics-the-whole/) [Anonymous](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anonymous/) > [Your eloquence should be the servant of the ideas in your head. Your rule might be this: If a sentence, no matter how excellent,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kurt-vonnegut/your-eloquence-should-be-the-servant-of-the-ideas-in-your-head-your/) [Kurt Vonnegut](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kurt-vonnegut/) > [Eloquence is relative. One can no more pronounce on the eloquence of any composition than the wholesomeness of a medicine, without knowing for whom…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/richard-whately/eloquence-is-relative-one-can-no-more-pronounce-on-the-eloquence-of/) [Richard Whately](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/richard-whately/) > [ It is true that despite occasional gleams of Churchillian eloquence he \[Gen. Douglas MacArthur\] usually spoke poorly. He was far more effective in conversations… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-manchester/it-is-true-that-despite-occasional-gleams-of-churchillian-eloquence/) [William Manchester](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-manchester/) [Browse all 439 Eloquence quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/eloquence/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Verbosity is the enemy of eloquence.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Rebecca Douglass" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rebecca-douglass/verbosity-is-the-enemy-of-eloquence/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Eloquence" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rebecca-douglass/verbosity-is-the-enemy-of-eloquence/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/202/rebecca-douglass-271919_quote_verbosity-is-the-enemy-of-eloquence-1639_1639783.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/202/rebecca-douglass-271919_quote_verbosity-is-the-enemy-of-eloquence-1639_1639783.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/202/rebecca-douglass-271919_quote_verbosity-is-the-enemy-of-eloquence-1639_1639783.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Verbosity is the enemy of eloquence.” — Rebecca Douglass", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Rebecca Douglass", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rebecca-douglass/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "“Verbosity is the enemy of eloquence.”", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rebecca-douglass/verbosity-is-the-enemy-of-eloquence/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rebecca-douglass/verbosity-is-the-enemy-of-eloquence/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```