Alan Turing Quotes

It's technically extremely difficult to get down what you really mean, not what you think you mean, or what you think sounds good, but what's really there, what you really have to express, in words that somehow convey that meaning in an approximate way.

Don't write so that you can be understood, write so that you can't be misunderstood.

One should aim not at being possible to understand, but at being impossible to misunderstand.

Words, like glasses, obscure everything they do not make clear. Before using a fine word, make a place for it.

I counted solely on the clarity of expression of my work to gain my ends.

Bad terminology is the enemy of good thinking.

I see but one rule: to be clear. If I am not clear, all my world crumbles to nothing.

For a very great many years, I asked this question: ‘To communicate or not to communicate?’ If one got himself in such thorough trouble by communication, then of course one should stop communicating. But this is not the case. If one gets himself into trouble by communicating, he should further communicate. More communication, not less, is the answer.

It is better not to express what one means than to express what one does not mean.

Words are how people think. When you misuse words, you diminish your ability to think clearly and truthfully.

Where questions of style and exposition are concerned I try to follow a simple maxim: if you can't say it clearly you don't understand it yourself.

I have to be clear with myself and very conscious of what I am trying to say. Misunderstandings will always take place; it's unavoidable.

Sometimes I think it's possible to mistake desire for clarity and talking in a no-nonsense way for aggression.

For my next trick I will make everyone understand me.

It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood.

The most important thing is to have something important to say and finding the means to say it.

I love the right words. I think economy and precision of language are important.

We find few disputes, that are not founded on some ambiguity in the expression [thereof].

You must be loud but you must also be understandable. There’s no point in being loud if you can’t be understood.

The more clearly you write, the more easily and surely you will be understood.

The truth is what facts are. I like facts. I like things to line up and be clear, and when we are honest and true about things, it helps things to make sense, and it cuts out a lot of the fat that gets in the way and causes for the misunderstandings that I believe lead to violence and... dysfunction, etc.

Ideas are only as good as your ability to communicate them.

They write them long because they can't write them short.

Most of the trouble in life comes from misunderstanding, I think,' said Anne.