“Words are like spices. Too many is worse than too few.”
Joan Aiken (1924–2004) English fiction writer
Source: The Last Slice of Rainbow and Other Stories
Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)
“Words are like spices. Too many is worse than too few.”
Joan Aiken (1924–2004) English fiction writer
Source: The Last Slice of Rainbow and Other Stories
“For some people, four walls are three too many.”
Joseph Stalin (1879–1953) General secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
This seems to have originated with the Spanish military leader Juan Domingo de Monteverde, who, in Francisco de Miranda, a Transatlantic Life in the Age of Revolution (2003) by Karen Racine, p. 239, is quoted as having said: "four walls are three too many for a prison — you only need one for an execution."
Misattributed
“We have too many high sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with them.”
Abigail Adams (1744–1818) 2nd First Lady of the United States (1797–1801)
Letter to John Adams (1774)
Robertson Davies (1913–1995) Canadian journalist, playwright, professor, critic, and novelist
"Author Says Messiah Could Be a Woman".
Conversations with Robertson Davies (1989)
Glen Cook (1944) American fiction writer
Source: Lord of the Silent Kingdom (2007), Chapter 20 (pp. 518)
“One (martini) is all right, two is too many, three is not enough.”
James Thurber (1894–1961) American cartoonist, author, journalist, playwright
Quoted in Time Magazine (New York, 15 August 1960) from an an interview with Glenna Syse of the Chicago Sun-Times
Letters and interviews
“Martinis are like breasts, one isn't enough, and three is too many.”
Herb Caen (1916–1997) American newspaper columnist
Cockburn, Alexander. "Breasts, Martinis and Hitchens". http://www.counterpunch.org/2003/05/06/breasts-martinis-and-hitchens/ Counterpunch.org, May 6, 2003. <br class="br">Attributed
Charles Stross book Singularity Sky
Source: Singularity Sky (2003), Chapter 6, “Telegram from the Dead” (p. 139)
“You could care enough to keep a secret, but you could care enough to tell one, too.”
Deb Caletti (1963) American writer
Source: Stay