10 December 2008 /
It takes time to distill an idea into its essence…
by Ian Roberts at 8:08 pm 10 December 2008
Filed under: Identity
Tags: distillation, essence, quotes
…but this isn’t a new revelation.
“I have only made this letter longer because I have not had the time to make it shorter.” —Blaise Pascal, (1623-1662) Lettres provinciales.
Not that the story need be long, but it will take a long while to make it short. —Henry David Thoreau
If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter. —Marcus T. Cicero
You know that I write slowly. This is chiefly because I am never satisfied until I have said as much as possible in a few words, and writing briefly takes far more time than writing at length. —Karl Friedrich Gauss (1777-1855)
It is my ambition to say in ten sentences what others say in a whole book. —Nietzsche
The more you say, the less people remember. The fewer the words, the greater the profit. —Felelon
No one who has read official documents needs to be told how easy it is to conceal the essential truth under the apparently candid and all-disclosing phrases of a voluminous and particularizing report…. —Woodrow Wilson
“If you want me to give you a two-hour presentation, I am ready today. If you want only a five-minute speech, it will take me two weeks to prepare.” —Mark Twain
“Perfection is attained, not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” —Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Good things, when short, are twice as good. —Baltasar Gracián