Baltasar Gracian Quotes

You've got to find some way of saying it without saying it.

'Almost' can be a polite way of saying something definitely. It withholds the obvious and dangles it just long enough.

If you can't be kind, at least be vague.

And isn't it better really to leave things only hinted at?

I never say what I mean, but I always manage to say something similar.

Never be lucid, never state, if you would be regarded great.

We paint a slow picture. You can see the brushstrokes. We don't get to the point, and sometimes when we do, our readers don't notice, in fact. It's so couched in nuance, it can fly right over a person's head. 'What was that you said? I couldn't quite make it out.'

I am about as detailed as a shadow.

If I turn out to be particularly clear, you've probably misunderstood what I've said.

It is always a mistake to be plain-spoken.

I've never really been somebody who likes to hit it straight. That's just never been my forte, I guess.

For parlor use, the vague generality is a life saver.

Anybody can be specific and obvious. That's always been the easy way. It's not that it's so difficult to be unspecific and less obvious; it's just that there's nothing, absolutely nothing, to be specific and obvious about.

Tell the truth, but tell it slant.

I like to be subtle, without being too obvious.

What's so useful about the British culture of politeness is the level of passive aggression is really fun to write.

Somehow it seems more clever to refer to something instead of saying it.

The way I work, things are very nuanced; not everything is explained.

In short stories it is better to say not enough than to say too much, because, because--I don't know why.

You are so tactful that I have no idea what you want.

I say things, but I say them indirectly. At the same time, I try to make my images as direct as possible.

The short story form allows evocation, suggestion, implication. Its potency often lies in what it does not say.

In the same way, you were happy in spring, With the half colors of quarter-things, The slightly brighter sky, the melting clouds, The single bird, the obscure moon- The obscure moon lighting an obscure world Of thing that would never be quite expressed, Where you yourself were never quite yourself And did not want nor have to be.

I don't want to lose too much of the mystery by hammering every detail to death.

I don't deny or affirm anything. I'm not very personal.