“If you have nothing to say and want badly to say it, then all the words in all the dictionaries will not suffice.”

— Eric Hoffer

Letter to Mrs. Blumberg (27 September 1977)
Context: There is not an idea that cannot be expressed in 200 words. But the writer must know precisely what he wants to say. If you have nothing to say and want badly to say it, then all the words in all the dictionaries will not suffice.

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Eric Hoffer 240

American philosopher 1898–1983

Bill Condon (1955) American film director

Source: A Straight Line to My Heart

“All the British media do is lie. I have a lot to say but nothing to you. I want to thank the British public for all their support.”

Tommy Robinson (1982) English right-wing activist

Tommy Robinson bailed after Court of Appeal win https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leeds-45029755 BBC News (1 August 2018)
2018

“Better say nothing at all. Language is worth a thousand pounds a word!”

Lewis Carroll book Through the Looking-Glass

Source: Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There

“One always speaks badly when one has nothing to say.”

Voltaire book Commentaires sur Corneille

On parle toujours mal quand on n'a rien à dire.
"Commentaires sur Corneille," Oeuvres complètes de Voltaire (1827)
Citas

“Say all you have to say in the fewest possible words, or your reader will be sure to skip them; and in the plainest possible words or he will certainly misunderstand them.”

John Ruskin (1819–1900) English writer and art critic

A Joy for Ever, note 6 (1857).
Context: For certainly it is excellent discipline for an author to feel that he must say all he has to say in the fewest possible words, or his reader is sure to skip them; and in the plainest possible words, or his reader will certainly misunderstand them.

“Say nothing good of yourself, you will be distrusted; say nothing bad of yourself, you will be taken at your word.”

Joseph Roux (1834–1905) French poet

Part 5, XXII
Meditations of a Parish Priest (1866)

“I think so badly of philosophy that I don't like to talk about it. … I do not want to say anything bad about my dear colleagues, but the profession of teacher of philosophy is a ridiculous one. We don't need a thousand of trained, and badly trained, philosophers — it is very silly. Actually most of them have nothing to say.”

Karl Popper (1902–1994) Austrian-British philosopher of science

As quoted in "At 90, and Still Dynamic : Revisiting Sir Karl Popper and Attending His Birthday Party" by Eugene Yue-Ching Ho, in Intellectus 23 (Jul-Sep 1992)

“The Communists say that there are the only two means of establishing communism. The first is violence. Nothing short of it will suffice to break up the existing system. The other is dictatorship of the proletariat. Nothing short of it will suffice to continue the new system.”

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (1891–1956) Father of republic India, champion of human rights, father of India's Constitution, polymath, revolutionary…

On Communism, Thoughts of Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar https://books.google.com/books?id=6nolAQAAIAAJ, p. 107

“Ah, it is the fault of our science that it wants to explain all; and if it explain not, then it says there is nothing to explain.”

Bram Stoker book Dracula

Source: Dracula

“You say you want diamonds on a ring of Gold,You say you want your story to remain untold.But all the promise we made from the Cradle to the Grave,When All I want is You”

Bono (1960) Irish rock musician, singer of U2

"All I Want Is You"
Lyrics, Rattle And Hum(1988)
Context: You say you want diamonds on a ring of Gold, You say you want your story to remain untold. But all the promise we made from the Cradle to the Grave, When All I want is You

“If you have nothing to say and want badly to say it, then all the words in all the dictionaries will not suffice.”

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Eric Hoffer 240

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