Straight from today’s Quotle — here’s who really said it, and the story behind it. Play again

Who really said it

I have made this longer than usual because I have not had time to make it shorter

Genuinely Blaise Pascal — but this English is a modern paraphrase Blaise Pascal 1623–1662 · French mathematician, physicist & religious philosopher
Attributed Free to reuse

Pascal really did write this — in French — in the Sixteenth of his Lettres provinciales, dated 4 December 1656 (published 1657): “Je n’ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n’ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte.” The idea and the original sentence are firmly his, as Quote Investigator documents. But the crisp English line quoted here is a modern floating paraphrase; it does not match his earliest 1658 English translation or any specific documented rendering.

Last verified 10 Jul 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

For presentations

Put it on a slide

Unconfirmed quote & credit

“I have made this longer than usual because I have not had time to make it shorter” Blaise Pascal, Lettres provinciales, Sixteenth Letter, 4 December 1656 (published 1657). Original French: “Je n’ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n’ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte.” The popular English “I have made this longer than usual because I have not had time to make it shorter” is a modern paraphrase.

Can you use it?

Free to use, including in commercial and paid presentations — no permission or licence needed.

Image direction — grounded in this quote’s real context; paste into your image tool

In context

Evoking the world of Blaise Pascal — French mathematician, physicist & religious philosopher. Theme: "I have made this longer than usual because I have not had time to make it shorter". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "I have made this longer than usual because I have not had time to make it shorter". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

The source

Work
Lettres provinciales (The Provincial Letters), Sixteenth Letter
Date
Letter dated 4 December 1656; collection published 1657
Original French
“Je n’ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n’ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte.”
English wording
A modern paraphrase — not the historical 1658 translation

Je n’ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n’ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte.

Pascal’s original line, closing the Sixteenth Provincial Letter (4 December 1656). Literally: “I have made this one longer only because I have not had the leisure to make it shorter.” The popular “I have made this longer than usual…” wording is a later, smoother paraphrase.

Lettres Provinciales at Wikisource

How we verified this

  • Quote Investigator traces the earliest English instance to a 1658 London translation of Pascal’s French, and debunks the Mark Twain connection.
  • French Wikiquote cites the original sentence to the Seizième lettre aux révérends pères jésuites, 1656.
  • WIST gives the French original with faithful English translations — none of which is the popular internet wording.
Public domain

Pascal’s original French sentence appears in the Lettres provinciales (1657), and the first English translation was printed in London in 1658 — both far older than 1931 and unquestionably in the public domain. The specific modern English wording shown is an untraceable paraphrase of that same public-domain sentence rather than a distinct copyrighted translation.

This reflects the original work, which is public domain. If your exact English wording comes from a specific modern translation, that translation may itself still be under copyright — check the edition you quote.

Fact-check

Who it's wrongly credited to

The sentiment is genuinely Pascal’s, but the pithy English line gets pinned on a rotating cast of famous names — and the wording itself is not actually his.

Mark Twain most common

Routinely credited to Twain online, but Quote Investigator found no evidence he ever used it.

Cicero, T. S. Eliot, Voltaire, Goethe floating

Various eloquent names get attached with no source; none predates Pascal’s 1656 letter for this specific remark.

Benjamin Franklin related but distinct

Franklin wrote a genuinely similar apology in 1750 (“I have already made this paper too long, for which I must crave pardon, not having now time to make it shorter”), which is often blurred together with Pascal’s line, per Quote Investigator.

The earliest known form of this quip is Pascal’s French sentence in the Sixteenth Provincial Letter (1656); the popular English — and every celebrity credited with it — came later, as Quote Investigator shows.

Context

Why it matters

Pascal added the line as a wry closing apology to the sixteenth of his Provincial Letters — anonymous pamphlets in the bitter Jansenist–Jesuit dispute of the 1650s. The joke lands because it is true: cutting prose to its essentials takes more time and craft than letting it run long.

Because the thought is so universally felt by writers, the English paraphrase has drifted freely across centuries and been re-credited to nearly every famous wit — a textbook case of a real idea outrunning its real author.

Brevity is the expensive option — and Pascal said so first.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Simplicity Work

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Quote Investigator: shorter-letterquoteinvestigator.com

Full investigation: Pascal's 1656/1658 origin, later users (Locke, Franklin, Thoreau, Wilson), and the false Mark Twain link.
French Wikiquote — Blaise Pascalfr.wikiquote.org

Sources the original French line to the Sixteenth Provincial Letter (1656).
WIST Quotationswist.info

French original plus literal English translations and misattribution notes.
Lettres Provinciales (Wikisource)en.wikisource.org

Public-domain text of Pascal's Provincial Letters.
Lettres provinciales (Wikipedia)en.wikipedia.org

Background on the 1656–57 letters, their pseudonymous authorship and the Jansenist controversy.

The true author

About Blaise Pascal

Blaise Pascal

1623–1662 · French mathematician, physicist & religious philosopher

Blaise Pascal (1623–1662) was a French mathematician, physicist, inventor and religious philosopher, a founder of probability theory and projective geometry. Under the pseudonym Louis de Montalte he wrote the Lettres provinciales (1656–57), a series of polemical open letters defending the Jansenist Antoine Arnauld and attacking Jesuit casuistry. Admired for their wit and prose, the letters are where his famous apology for a long letter appears.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Primary source — Chicago

Blaise Pascal, Lettres provinciales, “Seizième lettre aux révérends pères jésuites,” 4 December 1656 (Paris, 1657). Original: “Je n’ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n’ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte.”

MLA (9th ed.)

Pascal, Blaise. “Seizième lettre aux révérends pères jésuites.” Lettres provinciales, 4 Dec. 1656, Paris, 1657.

APA (7th ed.)

Pascal, B. (1657). Lettres provinciales [The provincial letters]. (Letter originally dated December 4, 1656)

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘I have made this longer than usual because I have not had time to make it shorter’?” Last verified 10 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/i-have-made-this-longer-than-usual-because-i-have-not-had

Copied