“It wasn't by accident that the Gettysburg address was so short.”

Letter (23 July 1945); published in Ernest Hemingway: Selected Letters 1917–1961 (1981) edited by Carlos Baker
Context: It wasn't by accident that the Gettysburg address was so short. The laws of prose writing are as immutable as those of flight, of mathematics, of physics.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "It wasn't by accident that the Gettysburg address was so short." by Ernest Hemingway?
Ernest Hemingway photo
Ernest Hemingway 501
American author and journalist 1899–1961

Related quotes

William O. Douglas photo

“The conception of political equality from the Declaration of Independence, to Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, to the Fifteenth, Seventeenth, and Nineteenth Amendments could mean only one thing — one person, one vote.”

William O. Douglas (1898–1980) Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States

Writing for the court, Gray v. Sanders, 372 U.S. 368, 381 (1963)
Judicial opinions

Holly Black photo
John McCain photo

“I am prepared. I need no on-the-job training. I wasn't a mayor for a short period of time. I wasn't a governor for a short period of time.”

John McCain (1936–2018) politician from the United States

In Republican presidential debate, Orlando, Florida, 21 October 2007 http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/21/us/politics/21debate-transcript.html?pagewanted=3
2000s, 2007

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield photo

“The chapter of knowledge is a very short, but the chapter of accidents is a very long one.”

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773) British statesman and man of letters

To Solomon Dayrolles (16 February 1753)

Harry V. Jaffa photo

“The American Revolution and the Civil War were not merely discrete events. They constitute the first and last acts of a single drama. The fourscore and seven years between the Declaration of Independence and the Gettysburg Address comprehended the action of a tremendous world-historical tragedy.”

Harry V. Jaffa (1918–2015) American historian and collegiate professor

How to Think about the American Revolution: A Bicentennial Cerebration https://books.google.com/books?id=iKGGAAAAMAAJ (1978) p. 53
Also quoted in Vindicating the Founders https://books.google.com/books?id=DjlpSl-x1gMC, by Thomas G. West, p. 32
1970s

Indra Nooyi photo
Margaret Atwood photo
James M. McPherson photo

“There are no words to convey my shock and sadness regarding the tragic accident that took the life of Halyna Hutchins, a wife, mother and deeply admired colleague of ours. I'm fully cooperating with the police investigation to address how this tragedy occurred”

Halyna Hutchins (1979–2021) Ukrainian-American cinematographer and investigative journalist

Source: 22 October 2021 https://twitter.com/AlecBaldwin/status/1451572461787439106 by Alec Baldwin the day after Alec killed her with a firearm

Joyce Carol Oates photo

Related topics