Brevity is the sister of talent, continued. "Brevity is the soul of wit"

Brevity is the soul of wit

Brevity is the soul of wit
From a letter dated April 11, 1889 from Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (I860-1904) to his brother Alexander: “Have you written a play? (...) My advice: in the play, try to be original and as smart as possible, but don’t be afraid to seem stupid; What is needed is freethinking, and only that freethinker is one who is not afraid to write nonsense. Don't lick, don't polish, but be clumsy and impudent. Brevity is the sister of talent" (Complete collection of works. T. XIV. M., 1949).
Quoted: as advice “(to the writer, speaker) to be brief, to state only the essence of the matter (jokingly ironic).

encyclopedic Dictionary winged words and expressions. - M.: “Locked-Press”. Vadim Serov. 2003.


See what “Brevity is the sister of talent” in other dictionaries:

    Speech * Aphorism * Loquacity * Literacy * Dialogue * Slander * Eloquence * Brevity * Shout * Criticism * Flattery * Silence * Thought * Mockery * Promise * Witness * ...

    Noun, g., used. very often Morphology: (no) whom? sisters, who? sister, (see) who? sister, who? sister, about whom? about my sister; pl. Who? sisters, (no) who? sisters, who? sisters, (I see) whom? sisters, by whom? sisters, about whom? about sisters 1. Sister... ... Dictionary Dmitrieva

    sister- ы/; pl. sisters, sisters, sisters; and. see also sis, sister, sister, sister, sister, sister... Dictionary of many expressions

    Y, plural sisters, sisters, sisters, w. 1. Each of the daughters in relation to other children of the same parents. When I reached the age of twelve, I already had five sisters, all younger than me, and then a brother was born. Morozov, Stories of my life. 2.… … Small academic dictionary

    Y; pl. sisters, sisters, sisters; and. 1. Each of the daughters in relation to other children of the same parents (or one of them) (cf. brother). Senior, junior s. Native village Have a brother and two sisters. S. husband, wife. To be brought by a sister to someone. Lose... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

    - (laconicism), brevity, conciseness, laconic presentation of thoughts using the least number of words. They say that brevity is the sister of talent. In order to present briefly, it is necessary to separate the main thing (in terms of quality) from... ... Wikipedia

    Conciseness (laconicism), brevity, conciseness, laconic presentation of thoughts using the least number of words. They say that brevity is the sister of talent. In order to present briefly, it is necessary to separate the main from the secondary, ... ... Wikipedia

    Style is a person. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, followed by Georges Louis Buffon The power of resistance that paper provides to a person is amazing. Jan Myslek Phrases are composed for lack of thoughts. Jean Condorcet Good prose like an iceberg, seven-eighths... ... Consolidated encyclopedia of aphorisms

    St. Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg; northern pediment “Resurrection of Christ” (XIX ... Wikipedia

Books

  • Antonovka with pepper, Antonov Valery Vladimirovich. The author of the book "Antonovka with Pepper" Valery Antonov proves the correctness of Chekhov's statement that "brevity is the sister of talent." He is a master of the aphoristic genre - creating laconic,...
  • Life and book. Aphorisms, sayings, sayings, Vl. Vorontsov. This is a book short statements about the book of many, many wonderful people world of different times and eras. Better than that what they said about the book, about its role in the life of man and humanity, to say...

Usage option, letter dated April 11, 1889 from Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (I860-1904) to his brother Alexander:

“Have you written a play? (...) My advice: in the play, try to be original and as smart as possible, but don’t be afraid to seem stupid; What is needed is freethinking, and only that freethinker is one who is not afraid to write nonsense. Don't lick, don't polish, but be clumsy and impudent. Brevity is the soul of wit".

    Her brevity was the mother-in-law of stupidity.

    The best brevity of thought is elementary silence.

    In other words, “brevity of thought” makes your hands “itch.”

    Brevity - evil stepmother vanity.

    Brevity, when there is maximum meaning in a minimum of words.

    Brevity is the sister of talent and a sign of intelligence.

    Brevity is the sister of talent, length is his father, and mother is the golden mean.

    Brevity and talent are friends in business.

    Brevity is not a truncation of thought, but the ability to give a direct path to a powerful stream of thought.

    Brevity in practice, laconic in language.

    Talent is making a masterpiece out of the simplest things.

    Brevity in deeds and words, golden line character.

    Brevity of thought is also the sister of the pedant.

    Brevity in words, more in deeds.

  • Brevity and diligence in business, results in the future.
  • Brevity and precision, essence and meaning.
  • The brevity of a thought says a lot about a person... It says that he is either a fool or a genius.
  • Brevity in words - precision in deeds.
  • Brevity is actually coherence of mind.
  • Brevity in the head - clarity in action.
  • Brevity is a sign of talent.
  • Brevity – saving on content
  • Brevity is the sister of talent and focus on results.
  • Brevity is the sister of talent and the mother-in-law of voluptuousness.
  • Brevity, expressed with obscenities, is the sister of the ensign.
  • Brevity is our brother's sister!
  • Brevity, of course, is the sister of talent, but brevity can be a sign of poor intelligence.
  • Brevity is a pearl in a bag of sand.
  • Talent lies in diligence and understanding of the matter.
  • It turned out that brevity is not the sister of wisdom at all, but an impostor who called herself sister, hoping to become an heir.

Phrases about brevity and talent, possible options continuation of the catchphrase.

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - Russian writer (1860-1904).
For the first time (at least on the Internet there is no other, earlier date) Chekhov expressed this idea on April 8, 1899 in a letter to the publisher Suvorin: “I think that if I lived another 40 years and during all these forty years read, read and read and learn to write talentedly, i.e. briefly

Then in 40 years I would fire such a big cannon at all of you that the heavens would tremble.”

A few days later, on April 11, in a letter to his older brother Alexander, Chekhov formalized the idea of ​​​​conciseness of what was written in the phrase that has been known since then: “My advice: in a play, try to be original and as smart as possible, but don’t be afraid to seem stupid; What is needed is freethinking, and only that freethinker is one who is not afraid to write nonsense. Don't lick, don't polish, but be clumsy and impudent. Brevity is the soul of wit. Remember, by the way, that love explanations, betrayals of wives and husbands, widows, orphans and all sorts of other tears have long been described. The plot must be new, but the plot may be absent"

A. P. Chekhov

Writer, playwright. Born in Taganrog, in the family of a shopkeeper. He graduated from high school and the medical faculty of Moscow University. The first story, humorous, was published in the magazine “Dragonfly” on March 9, 1880. In 1884, after graduating from the university, he worked as a doctor in Zvenigorod. From 1884 to 1888 he wrote more than 350 various works. He has been published in the magazines “Oskolki”, “Russian Thought”, “Severny Vestnik”, the newspapers “Russian Vedomosti”, “Petersburgskaya Gazeta” and many others. His most famous stories are “Man in a Case”, “Ionych”, “Gooseberry”, “Kashtanka”, “Darling”, “Lady with a Dog”, stories “Ward No. 6”, “Steppe”, “Duel”, plays “Uncle Vanya", "Three Sisters", "The Cherry Orchard".

Aphorisms of Anton Pavlovich Chekhov

  • A smart person loves to learn, but a fool loves to teach!
  • If you can't write, don't write.
  • Money, like vodka, makes a person an eccentric
  • Wonderful day today. Either go drink tea or hang yourself
  • A man is what he believes in
  • Even in human happiness there is something sad
  • Only fools and charlatans know everything and understand everything
  • The cheapness of Russian goods is a certificate of their worthlessness
  • What is unclear is a miracle
  • Shakespeare is not the main thing, but the notes to it
  • He who cannot take with affection will not take with severity.

Suvorin A. S.

Publicist, theater critic, publisher. Born in 1834 in the village of Korshevo, Voronezh province, into the family of a raznchinets. My grandfather was a serf, my father rose to the rank of captain. Studied in Voronezh cadet corps, in 1853 he graduated from special classes of the Noble Regiment. Due to poverty, he did not enter the university; he worked as a history and geography teacher. On February 15, 1858, he made his debut in the press with the poem “Prisoner,” published in the magazine “Fashion.” Since July 1861, he collaborated with the Moscow newspaper “Russian Speech”, published in the magazines “Sovremennik”, “ Domestic notes", "Russian Disabled", "Bulletin of Europe". From 1876 until the end of his life, he was the publisher and editor of the newspaper “Novoye Vremya”. Chekhov published a lot in it in the 90s. Suvorin was the first in Russia to organize stationary sales periodicals. Shops and kiosks of "A.S. Suvorin's Contracting" operated in major cities, at railway stations. In 1879, Suvorin founded the so-called “Cheap Library,” which published works that were affordable for the poor. In 1880 he co-founded the magazine “Historical Bulletin” and was its publisher until the end of his life. Died 1912

Chekhov A.P.

The elder brother of A.P. Chekhov. Graduated from the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics of Moscow University. Writer, journalist, staff member of the newspaper “Novoe Vremya”. The author of many stories, which he published in “Russian Wealth”, “Niva”, “Bulletin of Europe” and other magazines, several historical novels, popular historical essays, memories of my brother. He was considered no less talented than younger brother, but failed to realize himself. Died in 1913.

Brevity is the sister of talent, or the greats are about laconic speech

  • And the most brilliant speech becomes boring if it is drawn out (Blaise Pascal)
  • Brevity is the soul of wit (William Shakespeare)
  • Where words are few, they carry weight (William Shakespeare)
  • He is a true sage who knows how to say many things briefly and clearly (Aristophanes)
  • Talking a lot and saying a lot are not the same thing (Sophocles)
  • True eloquence is the ability to say everything you need to say, but no more (François La Rochefoucauld)
  • One word is enough - everything else is chatter (Jerzy Lec)
  • The power of speech lies in the ability to express a lot in a few words (Plutarch)

An example of brevity, which is the sister of talent

“You must be very careful!
How can you not understand?
You might run into a fool like me who could ruin your vacation.
She will get attached.
He will pester you, call you, tug at you...
And you need to rest.
But she won't give it to you.
She doesn’t understand that it’s all over!
What you no longer need
And he can go somewhere calmly...
She won't understand this.
She will not be able to come to terms with this and will write to you, come to you...
She won't have any idea that it's over.
Well, it's over!
Everything ends.
It was all over even faster than the vacation.
But she won’t catch this moment and won’t understand this moment.
She will have difficulty thinking in this state...
And you will lie.
And she will believe.
And you'll get tired of it.
You'll say:
“After all, where is her ego?”
Well, before it gets to her pride, let it get to you:
With someone like me, be very careful!
I see you are already afraid.
Have you already met such...
Until love arose in me, and responsibility in you,
Let's stay where we are - so that all future meetings will be like this one.
We need to be taught not to war, but to peace!
That’s where we haven’t achieved much yet.”
(M. Zhvanetsky)

On April 23, 1889, in a letter to his brother Alexander, Anton Pavlovich Chekhov wrote a phrase that became popular: “Brevity is the sister of talent.”

Chekhov's phrase is the essence of drama. Having written his brother the phrase “Brevity is the sister of talent,” Chekhov talked about drama. And indeed, here, more than anywhere else, it is important to hold the viewer’s attention. But it’s quite difficult to do this with a long monologue. Myself great writer had this talent in highest degree. He not only great playwright, but also a master short story. His works are succinct and accurate, despite their short duration. A.P. Chekhov became famous for his skill throughout the centuries. That’s why so many people, even those far from regular reading, know the phrase “Brevity is the sister of talent,” who said it, and that it means the ability to clearly express one’s thoughts. And it is not at all surprising that another brilliant playwright, William Shakespeare, expressed a similar idea long before Chekhov; he called brevity the soul of the mind.

EXTRACTS FROM A.P. CHEKHOV'S LETTERS

In a letter to his brother Alexander on April 11, 1889 Moscow, he writes: “Have you written a play? If you want to know an opinion about it that has value, then let Suvorin read it. Today I will write to him about your play, and you don’t break down and demolish it. Do not submit it to the censor before you have made the corrections that you will certainly make if you talk to experienced people. Suvorin alone is completely enough. My advice: in the play, try to be original and as smart as possible, but don’t be afraid to seem stupid; What is needed is freethinking, and only that freethinker is one who is not afraid to write nonsense. Don't lick, don't polish, but be clumsy and impudent. Brevity is the soul of wit. Remember, by the way, that love explanations, betrayals of wives and husbands, widows, orphans and all sorts of other tears have long been described. The plot must be new, but the plot may be absent.” (Complete collection of works. T. XIV. M..1949).

Roughly the same idea:

In a letter to his brother Alexander Chekhov on January 4, 1886, Moscow - “Don’t allow your stories to be shortened or remade... After all, it’s disgusting if Leukin’s hand is visible in every line... It’s difficult not to allow it; it’s easier to use the means at hand: yourself cut to nec plus ultra (to the extreme degree (Latin).) and redo it yourself. The more you cut, the more often you get published... But the most important thing: if possible, watch, watch and puff, rewriting, cutting, etc. five times ., remembering that the whole of St. Petersburg is following the work of the Chekhov brothers."

In a letter to M.V. Kiseleva September 29, 1886 Moscow - “Brevity is recognized in small press the first virtue. The best measure can be writing paper (the same one on which I now write). As soon as you reach page 8-10, stop! And besides, it is easier to send postal paper...".

In a letter to M.V. KISELEVA January 14, 1887 Moscow - “In general, small things are much better to write than big ones: there are few complaints, but there is success... what else is needed?”