One of the great WordPress blogs is Quote Investigator. In their investigation into the original source of “If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter,” I came across this great variation from Woodrow Wilson on the amount of time he spent preparing speeches.
“That depends on the length of the speech,” answered the President. “If it is a ten-minute speech it takes me all of two weeks to prepare it; if it is a half-hour speech it takes me a week; if I can talk as long as I want to it requires no preparation at all. I am ready now.”
So true.
There’s a lot of beauty and spontaneity in reading rawness, even if it might take extra time.
For example, the more people talk/write, the more they reveal things about themselves, and that can be beautiful – not as a way to manipulate them, but to genuinely understand who they are.
Conversely, the less information that’s written, the more effort required from the reader.
Aphorisms are a double-edged sword 🙂