Quotes About Clarity

It is when I struggle to be brief that I become obscure.

Brevis esse laboro, obscurus fio.(When I labor to be brief, I become obscure.)

Oh, the difference between nearly right and exactly right.

If any man seeks for greatness, let him forget greatness and ask for truth, and he will find both.

If any man seeks greatness, let him forget greatness and ask for truth, and he will find both.

When people will not weed their own minds, they are apt to be overrun with nettles.

A bystander often sees more of the game than those that play

There is no bombast, no similes, flowers, digressions, or unnecessary descriptions. Everything tends directly to the catastrophe.

It doesn't make any sense, does it?" "Some things don't," said the beetle, gloomily. "Don't be so sure," Aubrey said. "Everything makes sense if you can find the right way to look at it. What we need is a new perspective.

Brevity and conciseness are the parents of correction.

Maybe that's what the night is for, just so's we can know the difference when the light comes again.

A wisely chosen illustration is almost essential to fasten the truth upon the ordinary mind, and no teacher can afford to neglect this part of his preparation.

if you think you know what is going on, you haven't got a clue about what's going on.

But you don't always have to ask to know.

A very clear and succinct statement is in the introduction to his Methods of Logic, fourth edition (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1982

As I have heard it put, a critical thinker is good at distinguishing gold from bullshit

Most people strive to adjust their portfolios based on what they think lies ahead. At the same time, however, most people would admit forward visibility just isn't that great. That's why I make the case for responding to the current realities and their implications, as opposed to expecting the future to be made clear.

Here is an appropriate use of the exclamation mark: The last thing he expected when the elevator door opened was the snarling tiger that leapt at him. "Ahhhhh!" ... In almost all situations that do not involve immediate physical danger or great surprise, you should think twice before using an exclamation mark. If you have thought twice and the exclamation mark is still there, think about it three times, or however many times it takes until you delete it.

We have no way of knowing what words you are going to misuse, so we cannot offer you a list. What we can offer, though, is a test that you yourself can apply to any word, whenever you are in doubt. A Test: Do I Know This Word? Ask yourself: 'Do I know this word?' If the answer is no, then you do not know it.

When the reader has stopped to wonder at your delamificatious vocabulary, or, worse, when the reader has stopped because the word you've used has no more meaning to him than a random ptliijnbvc of letters, the reader is not involved in your story. ... Generally, saying 'edifice' instead of 'building' doesn't tell your reader anything about the building; it tells the reader that you know that word edifice.

I NOTICE THAT IT TAKES PRACTICE, NO MATTER HOW CLEAR YOUR THOUGHTS ARE. PLUS WHICH THIS IS A LETTER

At Starbucks 0 as in any business, in any life - there are so many hectic moments during the day when we are simply trying to do the job, trying to put out the fires, trying to solve any number of small problems, that we often lose sight of what it is we're really here to do.

To see my world not as it was, but as it could be. This became a lifetime habit. And in some ways, that's the story I've tried to tell in this book: how we can all reimagine a better future by learning from the past with as much clarity and wisdom as we can muster, and by summoning the will and doing the work to bring that future into being. This has been my life's journey.

Why doesn't God do something so spectacular that we would know what we are supposed to do?