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I don't like eloquence. If it isn't effective enough to pierce your hide, it's tiresome, and if it is effective enough, it muddles your thoughts.

— Dashiell Hammett

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More quotes by Dashiell Hammett

"A lot of fancier yarns come from people trying to tell the truth. It’s not easy once you’re out of the habit."

The Thin Man (1929)

"The cheaper the crook, the gaudier the patter."

The Maltese Falcon (1930)

Emotions are useless during business hours.

If a man says a thing often enough, he is very likely to acquire some sort of faith in it sooner or later.

But where knowledge of trickery is evenly distributed, honesty not infrequently prevails.

All Dashiell Hammett quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Dashiell Hammett (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.