Clippings

Familiar Quotations BrevitiesBrevity is the best recommendation of speech, whether in a senator or an orator.–Cicero Use in Literature BrevitiesWhatever brevity may be as regards wit it is certainly the soul of all agreeable poetry.–Samuel Butler (1835-1902) in Ex Voto.The kind soul was full of trouble, as the choke in his voice, the grasp of his hand, betrayed; but there were no tears, and the farewell of the friends was the more touching for its brevity.–Louisa May...
More Description

Familiar Quotations BrevitiesBrevity is the best recommendation of speech, whether in a senator or an orator.–Cicero Use in Literature BrevitiesWhatever brevity may be as regards wit it is certainly the soul of all agreeable poetry.–Samuel Butler (1835-1902) in Ex Voto.The kind soul was full of trouble, as the choke in his voice, the grasp of his hand, betrayed; but there were no tears, and the farewell of the friends was the more touching for its brevity.–Louisa May Alcott in Hospital Sketches.The brevity of the poems and their uniform smoothness sometimes produce the effect of monotony.–Thomas Bailey Aldrich in Ponkapog Papers.I received a note from her as you are aware. Its earnest brevity forewarned me that the call involved something of serious import; and I was not mistaken in this conclusion.–T.S. Arthur in The Allen House.He had the figure and appearance of an artisan, with the brevity of a peasant, the courtesy of a king and the noisy sense of humour of a Falstaff.–Margot Asquith in An Autobiography, vols 1,2.She answered with equal indifference and brevity, and the others said no more.–Jane Austen in Pride and Prejudice.Here is the book, in its dreadful brevity; and it will explain the oath exacted and taken when the colonel and the lieutenant bade each other farewell.–HonorÉ de Balzac in Modeste Mignon (tr Katharine Prescott Wormeley).The vagueness, the brevity of the message that had come to him out of the night made it terribly alarming.–Rex Beach in The Auction Block.The following brevities on chess are known to have been much admired by him, I therefore append them for his artistic eye.–Henry Edward Bird in Chess History and Reminiscences.But the West Wind episode must be avoided, not only for brevity, but because two supernatural appearances, so similar, yet of different personalities, would hopelessly confuse a told story.–Sara Cone Bryant in How To Tell Children Stories.