"You need to be concise, so that a thought
can run on without ever being caught
in bomastic battering our weary ears.
You also must create a style that veers
from grave to giddy, runs from lyrical
to lofty, and can be satirical.
while limiting your zeal and holding back
your point of view. A joke can oftern hack
through knotty problems more emphatically
than something stated diplomatically."

--The Satires of Horace

translated by AM Juster