Better Gutenberg
Free, beautifully formatted public-domain ebooks

The Note-Books of Samuel Butler

by Samuel Butler

122 of 532 · Contents · Download EPUB

Omission

If a writer will go on the principle of stopping everywhere and anywhere to put down his notes, as the true painter will stop anywhere and everywhere to sketch, he will be able to cut down his works liberally. He will become prodigal not of writing—any fool can be this—but of omission. You become brief because you have more things to say than time to say them in. One of the chief arts is that of knowing what to neglect and the more talk increases the more necessary does this art become.

← Back to The Note-Books of Samuel Butler

Scroll to Top