I have made this letter longer than usual, because I lack the time to make it short.

This remark is widely attributed to Blaise Pascal in connection with his 1656–1657 polemical letters known as the *Lettres provinciales* (*Provincial Letters*), written under the pseudonym Louis de Montalte during the Jansenist controversy in France. The line is typically cited as a wry apology to a correspondent for the length of a letter, pointing to the labor required to revise and condense prose. Although it is frequently repeated in modern discussions of writing and editing, the exact French wording and the specific letter in Pascal’s corpus are often not identified in reliable editions, and the attribution is sometimes treated as a paraphrase rather than a verbatim quotation.

The line captures a paradox of writing: concision is not the default state but the product of labor. To make a message short usually means selecting, restructuring, and cutting—work that demands time, attention, and often multiple drafts. By claiming he “lacks the time” to be brief, the speaker humorously admits that the letter’s length reflects constraints, not abundance of thought. The aphorism has become a durable maxim in rhetoric and editing, underscoring that clarity and economy are achievements. It also gently flatters the reader: a longer letter is framed as an unavoidable consequence of limited time, not disregard.

1) “I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time.”
2) “I have only made this letter longer because I have not had the time to make it shorter.”
3) “This letter is long because I had no time to make it short.”