27. Prize intensity more than extent.

Prize intensity more than extent. Excellence resides in quality not in quantity. The best is always few and rare—abundance lowers value. Even among men, the giants are usually really dwarfs. Some reckon books by the thickness, as if they were written to exercise the brawn more than the brain. Extent alone never rises above mediocrity; it is the misfortune of universal geniuses that in attempting to be at home everywhere are so nowhere. Intensity gives eminence and rises to the heroic in matters sublime.

THE ART OF WORLDLY WISDOM BY BALTHASAR GRACIAN 
TRANSLATED BY JOSEPH JACOBS 1892