It is vain to do more with what can be done with less.
― William of Occam
"Don't be a bore," says 17th-century Jesuit Baltasar Gracián.
Talking overmuch is a sign of vanity.
"Brevity flatters and does better business," Gracián says. "It gains by courtesy what it loses by curtness. Good things, when short, are twice as good."
Worse, talking overmuch is a sign of ineptness.
"It is a well-known truth that talkative folk rarely have much sense," Gracián continues. Talkative folk are "stumbling stones" and "useless lumber in everyone's way."
Useful folks get right to the point. "The wise avoid being bores, especially to the great, who are fully occupied: it is worse to disturb one of them than all the rest. Well said is soon said."
