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We should not write so that it is possible for [the reader] to understand us, but so that it is impossible for him to misunderstand us.
--
Book VIII, 2, 24.

 

Marcus Fabius Quintilian

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For certainly it is excellent discipline for an author to feel that he must say all he has to say in the fewest possible words, or his reader is sure to skip them; and in the plainest possible words, or his reader will certainly misunderstand them.

 

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Always remember that it is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood: there will always be some who misunderstand you.

 

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In science you need to understand the world; in business you need others to misunderstand it.

 

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To write and speak correctly is certainly necessary; but it is not sufficient. A derivation correctly presented in the book or on the blackboard may be inaccessible and uninstructive, if the purpose of the successive steps is incomprehensible, if the reader or listener cannot understand how it was humanly possible to find such an argument....

 

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