Phil Simon > Phil's Quotes

“Small wins are a steady application of a small advantage.”
― Charles Duhigg, The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business

“Most people who bother with the matter at all would admit that the English language is in a bad way, but it is generally assumed that we cannot by conscious action do anything about it. Our civilization is decadent and our language—so the argument runs—must inevitably share in the general collapse. It follows that any struggle against the abuse of language is a sentimental archaism, like preferring candles to electric light or hansom cabs to aeroplanes. Underneath this lies the half-conscious belief that language is a natural growth and not an instrument which we shape for our own purposes. —George Orwell, 1946”
― Phil Simon, Message Not Received: Why Business Communication Is Broken and How to Fix It

“Being incomprehensible offers unparalleled protection against having nothing to say...but writing with simplicity requires courage, for there is a danger that one will be overlooked, dismissed as simpleminded by those with a tenacious belief that the impassable prose is a hallmark of intelligence.”
― Alain de Botton, The Consolations of Philosophy

“The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place”
― William H. Whyte

“So many books, so little time.”
― Frank Zappa