No stile of writing is so delightful as that which is all pith, which never omits a necessary word, nor uses an unnecessary one.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), U.S. president. Letter, December 7, 1808, to his grandson, Thomas Jefferson Randolph. The Family Letters of Thomas Jefferson, p. 369, eds. E.M. Betts and J.A. Bear, Jr. (1966).