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Subject:Quote on writing "short" From:Sally Yeo <SYeo -at- ELUCIDEX -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 27 May 1999 10:15:08 -0700
Thanks to everyone who responded. The final results seem to be that
Blaise Pascal said it first. Different versions are probably due to
different translations from French. Robert Mohr and Elizabeth Stone sent
the following.
I have made this letter longer than usual because I lack the time to
make it shorter. -
Blaise Pascal
"Please forgive the length of this letter as I lacked the time to make
it
shorter."
Blaise Pascal
Suzette Severny sent a very nice quote by Twain, which is similar-
To get the right word in the right place is a rare achievement. To
condense the
diffused light of a page of thought into the luminous flash of a single
sentence, is worthy to rank as a prize composition just by
itself...Anybody can
have ideas - the difficulty is to express them without squandering a
quire of
paper on an idea that ought to be reduced to one glittering paragraph.
