I should be glad if I could flatter myself that I came as near to the central idea of the occasion in two hours as you did in two minutes.
Source: Note to Abraham Lincoln the day after their Gettysburg addresses.
-- Edward Everett, (Apr 11 1794-1865), US statesman, orator; He is remembered ironically for delivering the main speech preceding President Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, 1863; pres. Harvard U., 1846-49.