I am paid by the word, so I always write the shortest words possible.
Interpretation
Bertrand Russell humorously comments on writing concisely to maximize his earnings.
In this quote, Bertrand Russell humorously reflects on the nature of writing and the paradox of being compensated for each word. He suggests that if he is rewarded by the volume of words, it would be logical to employ the shortest and simplest words, highlighting the often absurd relationship between compensation and creative expression.
In practice
In a writing workshop to emphasize the importance of conciseness.
St. Paul introduced an entirely novel view of marriage, that it existed primarily to prevent the sin of fornication. It is just as if one were to maintain that the sole reason for baking bread is to prevent people from stealing cake.
Freedom comes only to those who no longer ask of life that it shall yield them any of those personal goods that are subject to the mutations of time.
Of these austerer virtues the love of truth is the chief, and in mathematics, more than elsewhere, the love of truth may find encouragement for waning faith. Every great study is not only an end in itself, but also a means of creating and sustaining a lofty habit of mind; and this purpose should be kept always in view throughout the teaching and learning of mathematics.
At all times, except when a monarch could enforce his will, war has been facilitated by the fact that vigorous males, confident of victory, enjoyed it, while their females admired them for their prowess.
Moreover, the attitude that one ought to believe such and such a proposition, independently of the question whether there is evidence in its favor, is an attitude which produces hostility to evidence and causes us to close our minds to every fact that does not suit our prejudices.
Extreme hopes are born from extreme misery.
If you've got a cat and a leg, you've got a happy cat. If you've got a cat and two legs, you've got a party.
A good joke is the closest thing we have to divine revelation.
The audience today has heard every joke. They know every plot. They know where you're going before you even start. That's a tough audience to surprise, and a tough audience to write for. It's much more competitive now, because the audience is so much more - I want to say sophisticated.
Right now I'm having amnesia and deja vu at the same time... I think I've forgotten this before.
There's no real preparing at home for stand-up. You just go and you just do it.
If Life is a Bowl of Cherries, What Am I Doing in the Pits?
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.