Mark Twain Didn’t Have Time To Write Shorter Letter?

Don’t simply say that Mark Twain said or wrote the quotation: “I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time.”

Mark Twain did not say or write this quotation.

Interestingly, this quote is attributed to many other people, including George Bernard Shaw, Voltaire,  Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Winston Churchill, Cato, Cicero, Bill Clinton, and Benjamin Franklin.

It is actually by Blaise Pascal, a French mathematician, physicist, inventor and writer.

You can find this quote in the book “Lettres provinciales” (Provincial Letters). It is a compilation of a series of eighteen letters written by Pascal.

This quotation comes from the number 16th letter found this book. It was a letter he wrote to To The Reverend Fathers, The Jesuits, December 4, 1656.

The line in French: “Je n’ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n’ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte.”

It is translated as: “I have only made this [letter] longer, because I have not had the opportunity to make it shorter.”

Another version translated by Thomas M’Crie, reads: “The present letter is a very long one, simply because I had no leisure to make it shorter.”

Here is another quotation wrongly attributed to Mark Twain:

“It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt.”

Here is list of verified authentic Mark Twain quotations.