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1 " I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead. "
― Mark Twain
2 " I have the advantage of knowing your habits, my dear Watson," said he. " When your round is a short one you walk, and when it is a long one you use a hansom. As I perceive that your boots, although used, are by no means dirty, I cannot doubt that you are at present busy enough to justify the hansom." " Excellent!" I cried. " Elementary," said he. " It is one of those instances where the reasoner can produce an effect which seems remarkable to his neighbour, because the latter has missed the one little point which is the basis of the deduction. The same may be said, my dear fellow, for the effect of some of these little sketches of yours, which is entirely meretricious, depending as it does upon your retaining in your own hands some factors in the problem which are never imparted to the reader. "
3 " Brevity Is Best: Nicknamed " Silent Cal," President Calvin Coolidge was once challenged by a reporter, saying, " I bet someone that I could get more than two words out of you." Coolidge responded, " You lose." The notion of crafting six word memoirs really took off after Smith Magazine shared this poignant one written by Ernest Hemingway: " For Sale: baby shoes, never worn." Pithiness Pays Off For Other Reasons: When required to be brief, for example, we gain clarity about what we really mean -- or have to offer. As Mark Twain once wrote, in a slower-paced time, " I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead. "
