The Soul of Wit

"Brevity is the soul of wit." - Shakespeare 

I could not agree more with the statement above. Shorter things are always more humorous. My wife is a perfect example. But seriously, I believe brevity is an essential part of etiquette and wit alike.

Think about every conversation or meeting. you have had over the course of the past couple of days. Now think about how many of those were lengthy and tedious because of the amount of words spoken. A true gentleman never uses two words when one will do. 

As it pertains to wit, keep in mind that Shakespeare lived in a day when rhetoric was still considered an art. A speaker could gather a crowd simply by waxing eloquently about a topic. Speech was considered a fine, high-class art. Today, speaking and how you conduct yourself is incredibly important. There will always be people who demonstrate why they should not be allowed to speak every time they open their mouth. Salesmen are particularly distinguished from one another by how well they present to prospects. 

Think about this example. A speaker has decided to inject some humor into an otherwise boring and dull speech. The speaker spends a great amount of time setting up the hypothetical situation that the audience can relate to. He then leads them to a fantastic punch line that gets everyone laughing. But when he tries to get back to his topic, he cannot remember where he left off and half of his crowd is still thinking about his hilarious story. Many of us have been the audience in this example. Wit is a phenomenal tool for getting a point across and relieving the stress of speaking. But when not coupled with brevity, it becomes simply another obstacle that speakers must overcome. 

A vital concept of brevity is that it is not just the art of being brief. I could write, "The dog runs," as an entire blog post. It would be very brief but would not actually give you anything to take home. That is what Shakespeare was really trying to get across, that meaning is added best when it is conveyed with brevity. I know this post is a bit shorter than normal; but maybe that was on purpose. Until next time, stay classy. 

-Andrew