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.
“It is a good thing for a man to offer himself cheerfully to the attacks of the comic writers; for then, if they say anything worth hearing, one will be able to mend; and if they do not, then all they say is unimportant.”
Diogenes Laertius
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Socrates 168
classical Greek Athenian philosopher -470–-399 BCRelated quotes
Source: What Is Life? with Mind and Matter and Autobiographical Sketches
“O but it is a fine thing to have a finger pointed at one, and to hear people say, "That's the man!"”
At pulchrum est digito monstrari et dicier "hic est".
Satire I, line 28.
The Satires
Source: Structured analysis (SA): A language for communicating ideas (1977), p. 18; Statement cited in: Peter Freeman, Anthony I. Wasserman (1983), Tutorial on software design techniques. p. 98.
“All a writer has to do to get a woman is to say he's a writer. It's an aphrodisiac.”
As quoted in "Dailer's Choice" by Harriet Van Horne, in New York Magazine Vol. 10, No. 13 (28 March 1977), p. 80
General sources
Speech in London (11 December 1891), quoted in The Times (12 December 1891), p. 7.
1890s
Source: Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895), P. 23.