“True eloquence consists in saying all that is necessary, and nothing but what is necessary.”
Heinrich Heine (1797–1856) German poet, journalist, essayist, and literary critic
François de La Rochefoucauld
Misattributed
La véritable éloquence consiste à dire tout ce qu’il faut, et à ne dire que ce qu’il faut.
Maxim 250.
Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims (1665–1678)
“True eloquence consists in saying all that is necessary, and nothing but what is necessary.”
Heinrich Heine (1797–1856) German poet, journalist, essayist, and literary critic
François de La Rochefoucauld
Misattributed
“All that needs to be said has already been said, but I’m going to say it again.”
Joe Biden (1942) 47th Vice President of the United States (in office from 2009 to 2017)
2022, May 2022, Remarks By President Biden on the Affordable Connectivity Program
“Not everything that's true needs to be said.”
Cassandra Clare book City of Bones
Source: City of Bones
Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer
Source: sifting through the madness for the word, the line, the way: New Poems
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German philosopher
Essays, On Authorship and Style
Context: The law of simplicity and naïveté applies to all fine art, for it is compatible with what is most sublime.
True brevity of expression consists in a man only saying what is worth saying, while avoiding all diffuse explanations of things which every one can think out for himself; that is, it consists in his correctly distinguishing between what is necessary and what is superfluous. On the other hand, one should never sacrifice clearness, to say nothing of grammar, for the sake of being brief. To impoverish the expression of a thought, or to obscure or spoil the meaning of a period for the sake of using fewer words shows a lamentable want of judgment.
Robert Oppenheimer (1904–1967) American theoretical physicist and professor of physics
Letter to his brother Frank Oppenheimer (14 October 1929), published in Robert Oppenheimer : Letters and Recollections (1995) edited by Alice Kimball Smith, p. 135
Ursula K. Le Guin (1929–2018) American writer
“They do.”
Source: Earthsea Books, The Farthest Shore (1972), Chapter 9, "Orm Embar" (Ged and Arren)
William Ellery Channing (1780–1842) United States Unitarian clergyman
"Likeness to God", an address in Providence, Rhode Island (1828) http://www.americanunitarian.org/likeness.htm <br class="br">Context: I affirm, and would maintain, that true religion consists in proposing, as our great end, a growing likeness to the Supreme Being. Its noblest influence consists in making us more and more partakers of the Divinity. For this it is to be preached. Religious instruction should aim chiefly to turn men's aspirations and efforts to that perfection of the soul, which constitutes it a bright image of God. Such is the topic now to be discussed; and I implore Him, whose glory I seek, to aid me in unfolding and enforcing it with simplicity and clearness, with a calm and pure zeal, and with unfeigned charity.