Dr. Jerry Tarver
Professopr of Speech Communications Emeritus
University of Richmond, Virginia

Charles Francis did not need to include "a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down" in the ample supply of carefully selected material in his WISDOM WELL SAID, but Mary Poppins' line tells us why writers and speakers will find his book invaluable. Why rely on bald assertion or droning repetition when your audience would enjoy it much more if you expressed your idea in a respected adage or an interesting story? Also, because anecdotes tend to stick in our minds, this approach will help the medicine in your message have a more lasting effect.

Francis has spent much of his distinguished professional career collecting "sayings that capture the human condition," and he shares one thousand two hundred and twenty-one of his best treasures in user-friendly format. The table of contents, the index, and the bold heading in the text will guide you to exactly what you want and often to something you didn't know you wanted. Ranging over more than one hundred and fifty-eight topics, you'll find a great variety of pieces; long and short, new and old. light and serious. Charles Francis has performed a highly useful service for writers and has done so in a most delightful way.