I saw this quote on Twitter the other day and replied: “That is beautiful and has so many layers. Thank you.” White Owl then replied: “You’re welcome Tom. I think its beautiful too. The power of a single sentence.“
I love brevity. In my work as a Sounding Board to brave leaders, sometimes bravery can mean helping them distil their message to one single sentence.
I am reminded of a post from 2018: “Writing I Love: the longest writing. can be one line“, giving multiple examples of “the power of a single sentence”. One sentence shared in that post that has me ruminating as I write this is a line from Cloud Atlas:
All boundaries are conventions, waiting to be transcended.
We create boundaries in so many ways as humans. In communities, nationalities, ethnicity, sexual orientation. In business there are so often hierarchies, competitors to be defeated, “us” and “them”.
I shall stop here and continue to allow myself to think about powerful single sentences. I’d love to hear of single sentences that you find powerful.