A picture is worth a thousand words

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A picture is worth a thousand words is a familiar proverb that refers to the idea that complex stories can be told with just a single still image, or that an image may be more influential than a substantial amount of text. It also aptly characterizes the goals of information visualization where large amounts of data must be absorbed quickly.

It is often referred to as a Chinese proverb, the phrase has been mentioned through history such as The Russian writer Ivan Turgenev wrote (in 'Fathers and Sons' in 1862): 'A picture shows me at a glance what it takes dozens of pages of a book to expound.'" From "The Dictionary of Cliches" by James Rogers (Ballantine Books, New York, 1985) and later coined by Fred R. Barnard in the advertising trade journal Printers' Ink, promoting the use of images in advertisements that appeared on the sides of streetcars. The December 8, 1921 issue carries an ad entitled, "One Look is Worth A Thousand Words."

Another ad by Barnard appears in the March 10, 1927 issue with the phrase "One Picture is Worth Ten Thousand Words," where it is labelled a Chinese proverb. The Home Book of Proverbs, Maxims, and Familiar Phrases quotes Barnard as saying he called it "a Chinese proverb, so that people would take it seriously." Soon after, the proverb would become popularly attributed to Confucius.

[edit] References

Stevenson, Burton. (1948). The Home Book of Proverbs, Maxims, and Familiar Phrases. New York: Macmillan. p. 2611.
Briggs, James. (2003, January 07). A picture is worth a thousand words retreved 2006, December 01 from http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/18/messages/154.html