A Quote by Robert Southey

If you would be pungent, be brief.

Robert Southey

Quote Topics

Brief Would Would Be

Quote Author

Robert Southey
English - Poet
August 12, 1774 - March 21, 1843

If you would be pungent, be brief; for it is with words as with sunbeams - the more they are condensed, the deeper they burn.

Robert Southey

If you be pungent, be brief; for it is with words as with sunbeams - the more they are condensed the deeper they burn.

John Dryden

Without a doubt, one of the things which keeps us from attaining perfection is our tongue. When one has reached the point of no longer committing faults in speech, he has surely reached perfection, as was said by the Holy Spirit. The worst defect in talking is talking too much. Hence, in speech be brief and virtuous, brief and gentle, brief and simple, brief and charitable, brief and amiable.

Saint Francis de Sales

Contractions, 'U' for 'you' and the like are wonderful to make communication brief and efficient - but we wouldn't want all our talk to be only brief and efficient. Taking pauses out of language would be like taking the net away from a tennis game. Where would all the fun go?

Pico Iyer

I will be brief. Not nearly so brief as Salvador Dali, who gave the world's shortest speech. He said I will be so brief I have already finished, and he sat down.

Gene Fowler

A lawyer's brief will be brief, before a freethinker thinks freely.

Augustus William Hare

I had a few brief, brief interactions with Coach K. Mainly us beating them in the NCAA Tournament back in 2012.

C. J. McCollum

For effective communication, use brevity. Jesus said, 'Follow me.' Now that's brief! He could be brief because of all that he was that he didn't have to say.

Jim Rohn

When you file an amicus brief, and you represent a state, the court reads your brief. It is a powerful position to make the legal assault from.

Ken Cuccinelli

It's never the next brief, it's ALWAYS THIS brief .

Paul Arden

Every man should write a brief history of his life: his parentage, his birth, his religion, when he was baptized and by whom, when ordained, what to, and by whom-give a brief sketch of all his missions and of all his official acts and the dealings of God with him. Then if he were to die and the historians wished to publish his history, they would have something to go by.

Wilford Woodruff

Our individual life is brief, and perhaps the whole life of mankind will be brief if measured in astronomical scale

Bertrand Russell

So I departed, leaving behind a pungent smell of brimstone. Just something to remember me by.

Jonathan Stroud

Well, Brief Encounter is certainly one of my top five favorites of all time. I looked at Brief Encounter very closely, to be honest.

Adrian Lyne

Honorable Senators: My sincerest thanks I offer you. Conserve the firm foundations of our institutions. Do your work with the spirit of a soldier in the public service. Be loyal to the Commonwealth and to yourselves and be brief; above all be brief.