The three shortest letters in history are quite amusing.
Third place:
“I did not have enough time to write you a shorter letter.”
(The great French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal, writing to a friend.)
Second place:
An angry reader sent Mark Twain a letter containing a single word: “Idiot.”
(Twain sent back the following reply: “I have heard of people who wrote a letter and forgot to sign it, but this is the first time I have seen someone sign and forget to write the letter…”)
First place:
After finishing his greatest novel, Les Misérables, Victor Hugo went on vacation. Curious to know whether the book was selling well, Hugo sent his publisher a letter containing a single character:
“?”
(Meaning: how’s it going?)
The reply, which was not long in coming, also contained a single character:
“!”
(Meaning: selling wonderfully.)
This is considered the shortest correspondence of all time.
Because sometimes less is more.
Or as U.S. President Woodrow Wilson put it:
“If you want me to speak for five minutes, give me a month to prepare. If you want me to speak for twenty minutes, give me two weeks. If you want me to speak for an hour, I am ready now.”
Bonus, in pictures:
Alterman’s shortest poem. The poem’s title is six times longer than the poem itself:
And the shortest verdict ever handed down by Israel’s Supreme Court:
