Ezra Pound Quotes

I don't use a lot of words unnecessarily.

Good writing does not come from verbiage but from 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.

Do not say a little in many words but a great deal in a few.

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

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

The chief virtue that language can have is clearness, and nothing detracts from it so much as the use of unfamiliar words.

Less is almost always better than more. Short words, short sentences, short speeches.

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

Use half as many words and they'll hit twice as hard.

A parsimony of words prodigal of sense.

Don't use a five-dollar word when a fifty-cent word will do.

Say all you have to say in the fewest possible words, or your reader will be sure to skip them; and in the plainest possible words or he will certainly misunderstand them.

The shorter and the plainer the better.

Brevity is a great charm of eloquence.

Omit needless words.

I'm fighting against the bad poet who is prone to using too many words.

There's a great power in words, if you don't hitch too many of them together.

Minimalism has a connotation of being reductive, and not in the best way. 'Brevetist' is a better term. I'm trying to be as concise as possible and still getting across to the reader. When information is delivered in that way, it is very satisfying to me.

Why need I volumes, if one word suffice?

Simple and to the point is always the best way to get your point across.

Easy reading is damn hard writing.

Words easy to be understood do often hit the mark; when high and learned ones do only pierce the air.

You know that I write slowly. This is chiefly because I am never satisfied until I have said as much as possible in a few words, and writing briefly takes far more time than writing at length.

I've simplified much more in my writing. I say what I've got to say, not in metaphor.