"Brevity," said Shakespeare, "is the soul of wit."

That's one reason why I find short speeches so interesting -- and instructive.

Nearly two hundred years ago, for example, at London's Guildhall, Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger was toasted as “the Savior of Europe” for organizing the coalition against Napoleon.

Pitt replied with one of the shortest – and, I think, one of the best – acceptance speeches in history. “I return you many thanks for the honor you have done me,” he said, “but Europe is not to be saved by any single man. England has saved herself by her exertions, and will, as I trust, save Europe by her example.”

Pitt was not quite a brief as Salvadore Dali was on another occasion, when he said that his speech was so short he had "already finished." But Pitt had style and substance in addition to brevity.