Echoes

Although there is no substitute for merit in writing, clarity comes closest to being one.

The surest way to arouse and hold the reader's attention is by being specific, definite, and concrete. The greatest writers — Homer, Dante, Shakespeare — are effective largely because they deal in particulars and report the details that matter. Their words call up pictures.

Prefer the specific to the general, the definite to the vague, the concrete to the abstract.

The approach to style is by way of plainness, simplicity, orderliness, sincerity.

Good design is as little design as possible. Less, but better — because it concentrates on the essential aspects, and the products are not burdened with non-essentials. Back to purity, back to simplicity.

Make definite assertions. Avoid tame, colorless, hesitating, non-committal language. Use the word not as a means of denial or in antithesis, never as a means of evasion.

It seems that perfection is attained not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing more to take away.

Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb-nail.

Students, when you want to say something, think about it three times before you say it. Speak only if your words will benefit yourselves and others. Do not speak if it brings no benefit.

Good design is unobtrusive. Products fulfilling a purpose are like tools. They are neither decorative objects nor works of art. Their design should therefore be both neutral and restrained, to leave room for the user's self-expression.

Good design is thorough down to the last detail. Nothing must be arbitrary or left to chance. Care and accuracy in the design process show respect towards the consumer.

It is not a daily increase, but a daily decrease. Hack away the unessential.

As designers, we have a great responsibility. I believe designers should eliminate the unnecessary. That means eliminating everything that is modish because this kind of thing is only short-lived.

Writing is one way to go about thinking, and the practice and habit of writing not only drain the mind but supply it, too.

These circumstances, trivial as they may seem, have their importance; since without them we could never have come to any certainty.

The man of perfect virtue is cautious and slow in his speech. When a man feels the difficulty of doing, can he be other than cautious and slow in speaking?

First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.

Right here let me make as vigorous a plea as I know how in favor of saying nothing that we do not mean, and of acting without hesitation up to whatever we say. A good many of you are probably acquainted with the old proverb: "Speak softly and carry a big stick—you will go far." If a man continually blusters, if he lacks civility, a big stick will not save him from trouble; and neither will speaking softly avail, if back of the softness there does not lie strength, power.

Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.

Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.

Good design is honest. It does not make a product more innovative, powerful or valuable than it really is. It does not attempt to manipulate the consumer with promises that cannot be kept.

The Perfect Man uses his mind like a mirror — going after nothing, welcoming nothing, responding but not storing.

With parsimony a little is sufficient; without it nothing is sufficient; but frugality makes a poor man rich.

Instead of announcing that what you are about to tell is interesting, make it so.

If you wish to have leisure for your mind, either be a poor man, or resemble a poor man. Study cannot be helpful unless you take pains to live simply; and living simply is voluntary poverty.