Such statements have also been attributed to Mark Twain, T.S. Eliot, Cicero, and others besides, but this article at Quote Investigator concludes that Pascal's statement is likely the original source of the phrase. People almost invariably arrive at their beliefs not on the basis of proof but on the basis of what they find attractive.
In 1871, Mark Twain included a version of the quote in a letter to a friend. He wrote, "You’ll have to excuse my lengthiness--the reason I dread writing letters is because I am so apt to get to slinging wisdom & forget to let up. Thus much precious time is lost." ... Blaise Pascal Tags mark twain, winston churchhill, quotes, blaise pascal
This is a quote I usually see attributed to Mark Twain: If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter. The quoteinvestigator.com research on that indicates that Twain “did not use it according to the best available research”.. The earliest use of this phrase from is Blaise Pascal in 1657 ( yes, that Pascal), originally in French as part of “Lettres Provinciales”:
Mark Twain did not say or write this quotation! Interestingly, this quote is attributed to so many other people, including George Bernard Shaw, Voltaire, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Winston Churchill, Cato, Cicero, Bill Clinton, and Benjamin Franklin. It is actually by Blaise Pascal, a French mathematician, physicist, inventor and writer.
The following quote is often misattributed to Mark Twain: "I have made this letter longer than usual, only because I have not had time to make it shorter." This quote is by the 17th-century French philosopher and mathematician, Blaise Pascal (1623-62), written in a letter to a friend. The original French version was: "Je n'ai fait cette lettre - ci plus longue que parce que je n'ai pas eu le ...
The discussion there attributed the quote in a number of forms claimed to be "the original" to H.D. Thoreau, Voltaire, Augustin, Mark Twain and most prominently to Blaise Pascal. Elsewhere it is also attributed to Albert Einstein, Oscar Wilde and Thomas Jefferson among others.
There's a powerful Blaise Pascal quote on brevity that translates to - "I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead." I thought about this recently as I compared two presentations. One of them was a rush job and contained far too many slides. The other was carefully put together and…
Over three hundred years ago King Louis XIV of France asked Blaise Pascal, the great French philosopher of his day, to give him proof of the existence of miracles. ... Mark Twain was an agnostic ...
What Mark Twain did say: ... This line was actually written by Blaise Pascal. What Mark Twain did say: “We write frankly and fearlessly but then we ‘modify’ before we print. ...
This is a quote I usually see attributed to Mark Twain: If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter. The quoteinvestigator.com research on that indicates that Twain “did not use it according to the best available research”.. The earliest use of this phrase from is Blaise Pascal in 1657 ( yes, that Pascal), originally in French as part of “Lettres Provinciales”:
Blaise Pascal, Lettres provinciales, 1656–7, Number 16, this one written December 4, 1656. Je n’ai fait /cette lettre-ci/ plus longue que parce que je n’ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus ...
Often misattributed to Twain, this is actually by Blaise Pascal, "Lettres provinciales", letter 16, 1657: Je n'ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n'ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte. Translation: I have only made this [letter] longer, because I have not had the opportunity to make it shorter. Whiskey is for drinking.
This quote is often attributed to various authors, including Blaise Pascal, Mark Twain, and Voltaire.The sentiment expresses the idea that constructing a concise and clear message can sometimes be ...
TIL Mark Twain is often wrongly credited with the quote: "I would have written a shorter letter, but did not have the time." Earliest credit goes to French mathematician and philospher Blaise Pascal in “Lettres Provinciales,” 1657.
— Blaise Pascal, mathematician and physicist. ... — Mark Twain, writer. All those aphorisms are very aligned with the mood of this blog, I had to rewrite those here. I’ll probably use them sooner or later. (via Dangerous Intersections) Erin 'Folletto' Casali 2010·01·13.
Pascal’s saying sounds odd the first time you hear it, but then its premise almost immediately becomes clear: Clarity and simplicity take time. Pascal otherwise prides himself in crafting concise, informative letters to his friends and colleagues that communicate his key thoughts, waste few words, and leave little doubt about his intent.
Mark Twain once said, “I didn’t have time to write you a short letter, so I wrote you a long one.” In conclusion, Blaise Pascal wrote a version of this saying in French and it quickly moved into the English language. What did Mark Twain mean when he said I didnt have time to write a short letter so I wrote a long one instead?
