It’s a good story, at least…

“The most valuable of all talents is that of

never using two words

when one will do.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

3rd President of the United States

He was a Republican when it was rather democratic to be a Republican.

The historical record doesn’t really suggest that Jefferson was as tight-lipped as this maxim implies.

Perhaps it would be more meaningful for ordinary folks like us if he had said something like “don’t use 38 words when a few of them, well-chosen, will do the job.”

Furthermore, let’s keep in mind the contemplative observation by the English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) that praiseworthy prose and poetry—and in general, talking—has a lot to do with using “the best words.”

‘nuff said.

* * * * * *

Book review: The Comanche Empire

the other story of the American West…

by Pekka Hämäläinen

click here

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many waters: more poems with 53 free verse poems,

and the rest of my poetry books are for sale on Amazon (paperback and Kindle)

and free in Kindle Unlimited, search Amazon for “Richard Carl Subber”