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Brevity is the soul of wit
An earnest request to participants of VFR: please try to make your posts as succinct as possible. A posted comment should not be an entire essay in which the writer throws in everything he has to say on a given subject. It should make one or two points, be relatively easy to take in, and help advance the discussion. Of course, this is not meant as a rigid rule. Sometimes one will have an important argument to make, or perhaps a response to another poster’s arguments, that will require more space to develop. But if posters as a rule will attempt to avoid undue loquaciousness, the threads at this site will be easier to read and more enjoyable and profitable for everyone. Thank you. Posted by Lawrence Auster at February 13, 2004 02:04 AM | Send Comments
Understood. Posted by: Ron on February 13, 2004 4:43 AMYes, all you other posters out there besides myself, please try to follow my example and be more concise. :-) . Posted by: Matt on February 13, 2004 3:29 PMA dead white male (Tolstoy?) said once — I don’t have time to write a short letter, therefore I’m writing a long one.” Sorry Mr. Auster, not all of us have even a fraction of writing ability that you are blessed with. Posted by: Mik on February 13, 2004 3:39 PMIs Matt demonstrating the Absence of Presence? Or maybe it’s the Presence of Absence? In any case, it’s most eloquent. :-) Posted by: Lawrence Auster on February 13, 2004 3:39 PMTo Mik, But maybe, as per Tolstoy, I just spend more time on my comments. :-) Posted by: Lawrence Auster on February 13, 2004 3:41 PM… Posted by: ... on February 13, 2004 9:13 PMBrevity is… Posted by: Edwin Vogt on February 13, 2004 9:31 PMy Posted by: Andrew Hagen on February 14, 2004 12:30 AMOuch! Posted by: David Levin on February 14, 2004 5:08 AMNo. Posted by: Edwin Vogt on February 14, 2004 9:23 AMAmen. It’s been getting out of control. Posted by: roach on February 14, 2004 6:47 PMAs he grew older, Chekhov came to believe that nothing he read was short enough. Posted by: paul on February 15, 2004 10:04 PMI quoted this maxim of La Rochefoucauld in another thread, but it really belongs here: La véritable éloquence consiste à dire tout ce qu’il faut, et à ne dire que ce qu’il faut. True eloquence consists in saying all that is necessary, and no more than is necessary. Posted by: Lawrence Auster on February 16, 2004 12:26 AMHaving been to a Lyndon Larouche speech (don’t worry, I do not plan on voting for him, he really IS a nutcase), I have discovered the following fact: Pasternak summed up all of life’s living in the beautiful, phiosophic thought: To live life to the end is not a childish task. Speak about brevity! He wrote what some have expressed in hundreds of pages! Posted by: Edwin Vogt on February 16, 2004 8:11 AM |