The memorable command advises writers to delete showy passages they love when those passages serve vanity or ornament more than the work as a whole.
On the Art of Writing, Lecture XII, “On Style,” Project Gutenberg #17470; the phrase concludes Quiller-Couch’s warning against purchased or extraneous ornament.
“Omit needless words.”
Conciseness is treated as removal of words that do no useful work, not as a demand that every sentence be short or stripped of necessary detail.
The Elements of Style, Chapter III, Rule 13, Project Gutenberg #37134; the surrounding paragraph explicitly says detail need not be eliminated.
“Do your work quietly.”
Useful work does not need constant display; quiet concentration can keep attention on the quality of the task rather than recognition for performing it.
Character Building, “Some Great Little Things,” Project Gutenberg #60484. Washington places this instruction among small daily habits of order, quiet, cleanliness, reading and reflection that he treats as important parts of character formation.
“Very little indeed is necessary for living a happy life.”
The line challenges the assumption that a good life requires constant accumulation or ideal circumstances.
Meditations, Book VII, in George Long’s translation.
“Remember that you must behave in life as at a dinner party.”
The dinner-party image recommends waiting for what comes in proper order instead of grabbing anxiously, turning restraint into a model for daily conduct.
Enchiridion, chapter 15; the following sentences explain waiting until things come round to you.
“He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him.”
Answering before listening mistakes speed for competence; understanding requires enough restraint to hear the matter before judging it.
Proverbs 18:13 in the King James Version.
“The mind is its own place.”
The statement emphasizes how mental framing can alter the experience of circumstances, for good or ill.
Paradise Lost (1667), Book I, line 254; retained legacy short extract from the fuller Satan sentence beginning ‘The mind is its own place’ and continuing into line 255. It is the same underlying passage as the longer catalog record, not a separate fifth passage.
