Quotes About Precision

When you're writing theology, you have to say everything all the time, otherwise people think you've deliberately missed something out.

Use the right word, not its second cousin.

I am not given to exaggeration, and when I say a thing I mean it.

Eschew surplusage.

To get the right word in the right place is a rare achievement.

The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug (Mark Twain)

The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between the lightening and the lightening bug.

The difference between the ALMOST right word and the RIGHT word is really quite a large matter. It's the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning.

The difference between the almost right word and the right word is really a large matter - 'tis the difference between the lightning-bug and the lightning.

Schreiben ist leicht, man muss nur die falschen Worte weglassen.

The difference between the almost right word & the right word is really a large matter--it's the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.- Mark Twain (Letter to George Bainton, 10/15/1888)

La diferencia entre la palabra acertada y la palabra casi acertada es la que hay entre la luz de un rayo y una luciérnaga.

When you are drawing, you are always one or two marks ahead. You're always thinking, 'After what I'm doing here I'll go there, and there.' It's like chess or something. In drawing I've always thought economy of means was a great quality - not always in painting, but always in drawing.

My friend, who loved above all things precision and concentration of thought, resented anything which distracted his attention from the matter in hand. And yet, without a harshness which was foreign to his nature, it was impossible to refuse to listen to the story of the young and beautiful woman

becomes a mathematical certainty. You can, for example, never foretell what any one man will do, but you can say with precision what an average number will be up to.

Desultory readers are seldom remarkable for the exactness of their learning. No man burdens his mind with small matters unless he has some very good reason for doing

Se diría que habita en su persona la pasión por el conocimiento detallado y preciso.

How often?" "Well, some hundreds of times." "Then how many are there?" "How many? I don't know." "Quite so! You have not observed. And yet you have seen. That is just my point. Now, I know that there are seventeen steps, because I have both seen and observed.

Much depends on asking the right question at the right time.

The Devil is precise; the marks of his presence are definite as stone...

Said in reference to Ludwig Wittgenstein: Talent is like the marksman who hits a target which others cannot reach; genius is like the marksman who hits a target others cannot even see.

A word too much always defeats its purpose.

Weinigen schrijven zoals een architect bouwt. Verreweg de meesten schrijven zoals men domino speelt.

When the twins asked what cuff-links were for—"To link cuffs together," Ammu told them—they were thrilled by this morsel of logic in what had so far seemed an illogical language. Cuff + link = cuff-link . This, to them, rivaled the precision of logic and mathematics. Cuff-links gave them an inordinate (if exaggerated) satisfaction, and a real affection for the English language.