Susie Dent

English may be the fastest moving language in the world, but there are plenty of concepts, sensations and everyday occurrences which lack a pithy word to describe them. Take the clunkiness of 'the day before yesterday' and 'the day after tomorrow': German provides single words for both.

English Scientist

Chris Sacca

A great idea can't succeed without a great operator. But rarely can a great operator squeak by with a bad idea. So, as pithy as it sounds to say 'It's all about the people,' I only invest when I think I have found the right team for the right business.

American Businessman

Bertie Carvel

I get so carried away in interviews and deliver 1,500-word treatises, then find it's been reduced to something pithier but also not quite accurate. Although I imagine there are people I work with who wish they could edit me every day.

British Actor

Kate Christensen

American Music' is an inventive, passionate, pithy novel whose major theme is love itself and whose minor theme, music, is an emotional, meaningful counterpoint. Like Count Basie and His Orchestra, this book swings.

American Novelist

Jeffrey Tambor

What can I say about a world without Garry Shandling? This is where I need Garry. He would have something pithy, and there would be a laugh, and your heart would break at the same time. He changed my life.

American Actor

Edward Carpenter

Whatever the practical value of the Walden experiment may be, there is no question that the book is one of the most vital and pithy ever written.

English Activist

Faith Salie

In case you don't watch much TV or spend time with anyone under 40, 'Really?' is pop culture's pithiest way to deliver a withering put-down.

American Journalist

Denis Diderot

Pithy sentences are like sharp nails which force truth upon our memory.

French Editor

Ben Dolnick

A short-story collection is harder to formulate pithy sentences about.

American Writer

Matt Hancock

I am a very slow reader. I have to have things written in a pithy way.

British Politician

Pithy implies that a lot is said with few words. It values brevity and impact over length.

Expressive Efficiency

A pithy statement often contains a clever or wise observation that makes people think.

Wit and Wisdom

A pithy phrase can be persuasive because it's memorable and doesn't overwhelm with too much information.

Persuasive Power

 But the truth is it doesn't really matter which sage said it first, because it's still sage advice, even today. "Know thyself." It's pithy almost to the point of being meaningless, but it rings familiar and true, doesn't it?