BREVITY

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

Edwards, Tryon
Have something to say; say it, and stop when you've done.

Never be so brief as to become obscure.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo
The one prudence of life is concentration.

Fenelon, Francis de S.
Genuine good taste consists in saying much in few words, in choosing among our thoughts, in having order and arrangement in what we say, and in speaking with composure.

Halleck, Fitz-Greene
One rare, strange virtue in speeches and the secret of their mastery, is, that they are short.

Horace
When you introduce a moral lesson let it be brief.

Jay, William
I saw one excellency within my reach —it was brevity, and I determined to obtain it.

Luther, Martin
The fewer the words, the better the prayer.

Neal, John
Talk to the point, and stop when you have reached it.—Be comprehensive in all you say or write.—To fill a volume about nothing is a credit to nobody.

Pope, Alexander
Words are like leaves, and where they most abound, much fruit of sense beneath is rarely found.

Ruskin, John
Say all you have to say in the fewest possible words, or your reader will be sure to skip them; and in the plainest possible words, or he will certainly misunderstand them.

Shakespeare, William
Brevity is the soul of wit.

Smith, Sydney
Brevity to writing is what charity is to all other virtues; righteousness is nothing without the one, nor authorship without the other.

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

Steele, Sir Richard
When one has no design but to speak plain truth, he may say a great deal in a very narrow compass.