Clarity Quotes

“The minute a thing is long and complicated, it confuses. Whoever wrote the Ten Commandments made 'em short. They may not always be kept, but they are understood.”

“The reason political party platforms are so long is that when you straddle anything it takes a long time to explain it.”

“Those who cannot tell what they desire or expect, still sigh and struggle with indefinite thoughts and vast wishes.”

“Hammer your thoughts into unity.”

“Philosophy is "an unusually stubborn attempt to think clearly.”

“One must regard the hyphen as a blemish to be avoided wherever possible.”

“All decision-making is a values-clarifying exercise.”

“The minute you read something and you can't understand it, you can be sure it was written by a lawyer. Then, if you give it to another lawyer to read and he don't know just what it means, then you can be sure it was drawn up by a lawyer. If it's in a few words and is plain, and understandable only one way, it was written by a non-lawyer.”

“Metaphysics means nothing but an unusually obstinate effort to think clearly.”

“Bad terminology is the enemy of good thinking.”

“I know what I want to do and it makes sense to get going.”

“A writer should give direct certainty; explanations are so much water poured into the wine.”

“When you know what's most important to you, making a decision is quite simple. Most people, though, are unclear about what's most important in their lives, and thus decision making becomes a form of internal torture.”

“Creating Change - The first step to creating any change is deciding what you do want so that you have something to move toward.”

“The minute you read something that you can't understand, you can almost be sure that it was drawn up by a lawyer.”

“When we really sit back with a smile on our face is when we run into a situation we can understand, where the facts are ascertainable and clear, and the course of action obvious.”

“Longfellow has his popularity, in the main, because he tells his story or his idea so that one needs nothing but his verses to understand it.”

“I have grown to believe that there is no dangerous idea, which does not become less dangerous when written out in sincere and careful English.”

“Words are always getting conventionalized to some secondary meaning. It is one of the works of poetry to take the truants in custody and bring them back to their right senses.”

“There is nothing like writing to force you to think and get your thoughts straight.”

“How do you turn the invisible into the visible? The first step is to define your dream precisely; the only limit to what you can achieve is the extent of your ability to define with precision that which you desire.”

“Remember, ask and you shall receive. If you ask a terrible question, you'll get a terrible answer. Your mental computer is ever ready to serve you, and whatever question you give it, it will surely come up with an answer.”

“Yes, yes, I'm coming. Right up the top of the house. One moment I'll linger. How the mud goes round in the mind-what a swirl these monsters leave, the waters rocking, the weeds waving and green here, black there, striking to the sand, till by degrees the atoms reassemble, the deposit sifts itself, and a gain through the eyes one sees clear and still, and there comes to the lips some prayer for the departed, some obsequy for the souls of those one nods to, the one never meets again.”

“Night had come—night that she loved of all times, night in which the reflections in the dark pool of the mind shine more clearly than by day.”

“I like going from one lighted room to another, such is my brain to me; lighted rooms.”