BREVITY

Usually, by the time a person says, "Well, to make a long story short," it's too late.

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.

Former president Calvin Coolidge was known as a man of few words. Once, at a White House dinner, a woman approached Coolidge and said, "Mr. President, I have a bet with a friend that I can get you to say at least three words." Coolidge looked at her and said, "You lose." 

Quoted in MBI's Today In The Word, November, 1989, p.39.