Quotations on Brevity

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

~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

Brevity is a great charm of eloquence.

~ Marcus Tullius Cicero

Be sincere; be brief; be seated.

~ Franklin D. Roosevelt

Whatever advice you give, be brief.

~ Horace

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

Never be so brief as to become obscure.

~ Tyron Edwards

It is my ambition to say in ten sentences; what others say in a whole book.

~ Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

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

~ Josh Billings

If you would be pungent, be brief; for it is with words as with sunbeams - the more they are condensed, the deeper they burn.

~ Robert Southey

The fewer the words, the better the prayer.

~ Martin Luther

The more you say, the less people remember. The fewer the words, the greater the profit.

~ Francois Fénelon

Brevity and conciseness are the parents of correction.

~ Hosea Ballou