“He can compress the most words into the smallest ideas of any man I ever met.”

—  Abraham Lincoln

Attributed in Lincoln the Lawyer (1906) by Frederick Trevor Hill — Hill noted that he could find no record of whom Lincoln was insulting.
Posthumous attributions

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update Oct. 1, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "He can compress the most words into the smallest ideas of any man I ever met." by Abraham Lincoln?
Abraham Lincoln photo
Abraham Lincoln 618
16th President of the United States 1809–1865

Related quotes

Winston S. Churchill photo

“We know that he has, more than any other man, the gift of compressing the largest number of words into the smallest amount of thought.”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

A jibe directed at Ramsay MacDonald, during a speech in the House of Commons, March 23, 1933 "European Situation" http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1933/mar/23/european-situation#column_544. This quote is similar to a remark (“He can compress the most words into the smallest ideas of any man I ever met”) made by Abraham Lincoln. [Frederick Trevor Hill credits Lincoln with this remark in Lincoln the Lawyer (1906), adding that ‘History has considerately sheltered the identity of the victim’.]
The 1930s

Plutarch photo

“Spintharus, speaking in commendation of Epaminondas, says he scarce ever met with any man who knew more and spoke less.”

Plutarch (46–127) ancient Greek historian and philosopher

Of Hearing, 6
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

Haruki Murakami photo

““The Boss is an honorable man. After the Lord, the most godly person I've ever met." "You've met God?" "Certainly. I telephone Him every night.””

Haruki Murakami (1949) Japanese author, novelist

A Wild Sheep Chase: A Novel (1982)

Steve Martin photo

“… it is not the big events that hurt the most but rather the smallest questionable shift in tone at the end of a spoken word that can plow most deeply into the heart.”

Steve Martin book Shopgirl

Source: Shopgirl

“He was one of the most supremely stupid men I have ever met. He taught me a great deal.”

John Fowles book The Magus

Source: The Magus

Matka Tereza photo

“The biggest people with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest people with the smallest minds. Think big anyway!”

Matka Tereza (1910–1997) Roman Catholic saint of Albanian origin
Geoffrey Chaucer photo

“Who so shall telle a tale after a man,
He moste reherse, as neighe as ever he can,
Everich word, if it be in his charge,
All speke he never so rudely and so large;
Or elles he moste tellen his tale untrewe,
Or feinen thinges, or finden wordes newe.”

Geoffrey Chaucer book The Canterbury Tales

General Prologue, l. 733
The Canterbury Tales

Leo Tolstoy photo

“The most difficult subjects can be explained to the most slow-witted man if he has not formed any idea of them already; but the simplest thing cannot be made clear to the most intelligent man if he is firmly persuaded that he knows already, without a shadow of doubt, what is laid before him.”

Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian writer

Source: The Kingdom of God is Within You (1894), Ch. III

Poul Anderson photo

“Your Eminence is as great a man as I have ever met.”

Poul Anderson book The Boat of a Million Years

“Then God have mercy on humankind,” Richelieu replied.
Source: The Boat of a Million Years (1989), Chapter 11 “The Kitten and the Cardinal” (p. 207)

“Anjan Dutta is one of the most interesting persons I have ever met.”

Arin Paul (1980) Indian film director

Washington Bangla Radio http://www.washingtonbanglaradio.com/content/121578810-interview-arin-paul-film-maker-doshta-dosh-1010-jyanto-durga-durga-live (2010)

Related topics