Quotes About Brevity

A ver short chapter with a long title, in which not very much happens.

Let my life as Poet begin. I want the life of the Poet. I have labored for over twelve years, one thousand pages of prose. Now, I want the easiness of poetry. The brevity of the poem.

The Lord's Prayer is 66 words, the Gettysburg Address is 286 words, there are 1,322 words in the Declaration of Independance, but the government regulations on the sale of cabbage total 26,911 words.

This perception of a news show as a stylized dramatic performance whose content has been staged largely to entertain is reinforced by several other features, including the fact that the average length of any story is forty-five seconds. While brevity does not suggest triviality, in this case it clearly does. It is simply not possible to convey a sense of seriousness about any event if its implications are exhausted in less that one minute's time.

Good description is fast, spare, specific, and showing. Weak description is slow, wordy, vague, abstract, and telling.

Obviously, we can't cut all prepositions, nor should we try. But keeping them to a minimum offers a quick route to clarity, simplicity, and brevity.

Hubert Humphrey's wife is said to have advised him: "Darling, for a speech to be immortal it need not be interminable.

I loathe my life! I would not live forever. Leave me alone, for my days are but a breath.

You, indeed, have made my days as handbreadths, and my lifetime as nothing before You. Truly each man at his best exists as but a breath. Selah

Remember the briefness of my lifespan! For what futility You have created all men!