Jean Rostand Quotes

Speak properly, and in as few words as you can, but always plainly; for the end of speech is not ostentation, but to be understood.

If you really understand something, you can say it in the fewest words, instead of thrashing about.

He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I know.

Never use a long word where a short one will do.

Omit needless words.

Genuine good taste consists in saying much in few words, in choosing among our thoughts, in having order and arrangement in what we say, and in speaking with composure.

Writing is learning to say nothing, more cleverly each day.

Nature is garrulous to the point of confusion, let the artist be truly taciturn.

Say what you have to say in the fewest possible words.

Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts.

What we call a poem is mostly what is not there on the page. The strength of any poem is the poems that it has managed to exclude.

I'm an enemy of exposition. I feel there's no need to overstate.

However old-fashioned and right-wing this may sound, the American genius for language lies in understatement, in saying things simply, pointedly and quickly, and in making new and clean and swift what otherwise might be ponderous, round and slow.

We know that he has, more than any other man, the gift of compressing the largest amount of words into the smallest amount of thought.

Wordiness is a sickness of American writing. Too many words dilute and blur ideas.

I always feel that whatever isn't necessary shouldn't be in a poem.

As it is the mark of great minds to say many things in a few words, so it is that of little minds to use many words to say nothing.

Cross out as many adjectives and adverbs as you can. ... It is comprehensible when I write: "The man sat on the grass," because it is clear and does not detain one's attention. On the other hand, it is difficult to figure out and hard on the brain if I write: "The tall, narrow-chested man of medium height and with a red beard sat down on the green grass that had already been trampled down by the pedestrians, sat down silently, looking around timidly and fearfully." The brain can't grasp all that at once, and art must be grasped at once, instantaneously.

Though old the thought and oft exprest, Tis his at last who says it best.

I would never use a long word, even, where a short one would answer the purpose.

To use many words to communicate few thoughts is everywhere the unmistakable sign of mediocrity. To gather much thought into few words stamps the man of genius.

What is required is not a lot words, but effectual ones.

Sean, as always, gets by on one word while everyone else needs five or six.

I don't have your way with words "Sin said. "So I'm just going to go with a quick response. Ha

To say more while saying less is the secret of being simple.