A popular saying about speaking is:
“If you would be pungent, be brief—for it is with words as with sunbeams, the more they are condensed the deeper they burn.”
The line was published (uncredited) in the Boston (MA) Daily Bee on December 23, 1850, and was reprinted in many other American newspapers.
The saying has been credited to English poet Robert Southey (1774-1843) since the late 1800s, but Southey died before the first printed citations—making it improbable that he ever said it.
23 December 1850, Boston (MA) Daily Bee, “News Items,” pg. 2, col. 2:
If you would be pungent, be brief—for it is with words as with sunbeams, the more they are condensed the deeper they burn.
Chronicling America
2 January 1851, Gallipolis (OH) Journal, pg. 1, col. 6:
If you would be pungent, be brief—for it is with words as with sunbeams, the more they are condensed the deeper they burn.
6 January 1851, Cleveland (OH) Daily Plain Dealer, pg. 4, col. 1:
[From the Albany Dutchman.]
Crumbs for All Kinds of Chickens.
(...)
If you would be pungent, be brief—for it is with words as with sunbeams the more they are condensed the deeper they burn
Google Books
May 1854, Arthur’s Home Magazine, “Gems of Thought,” pg, 394, col. 1:
If you would be pungent, be brief, for it is with work (sic) as with sunbeams, the more they are condensed the deeper they burn.
Google Books
A Dictionary of Thoughts:
Being a Cyclopedia of Laconic Quotations
By Tryon Edwards
New York, NY: Cassell Publishing Company
1891
Pg. 52:
If you would he pungent, be brief ; for it is with words as with sunbeams — tin: more they are condensed, the deeper they burn.— Southey.
Google Books
The Complete Book of Practical Proverbs & Wacky Wit
By Vernon McLellan
Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers
1996
Pg. 245:
If you would be pungent, be brief, for it is with words as with sunbeams; the more they are condensed, the deeper they burn. Robert Southey
Google Books
10 Things Every Writer Needs to Know
By Jeff Anderson
Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers
2011
Pg. 235:
If you would be pungent, be brief, for it is with words as with sunbeams—the more they are condensed, the deeper they burn. —Robert Southey .
Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.
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Above, Big Apple Corner at 54th Street and Broadway in Manhattan. Google Maps. Stolen and missing, 2021-2024.
Above, John J. Fitz Gerald, from the Aug. 15, 1931, Binghamton (NY) Press, pg. 14.
Listen to Robert Emmerich introduce "The Big Apple," a hit song from 1937. Music written by Bob and performed by Tommy Dorsey's Clambake Seven with Bob on piano. Lyrics written by Buddy Bernier and sung by Edythe Wright. Audio provided by Dorothy Emmerich.
Also listen to a 1937 "The Big Apple" song by Ozzie Nelson and his Orchestra. See a 1929 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald and a 1931 photo of John J. Fitz Gerald.
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