Simplicity

"Simplicity is the most deceitful mistress that ever betrayed man."

"Simplicity is very complicated."

"Do nothing but what is necessary. ... By this rule a man has the double pleasure of making his actions good and few into the bargain. For the greater part of what we say and do, being unnecessary, if this were but taken away, we should have both more leisure and less disturbance. And therefore before a man sets forward, he should ask himself this question, "Am I not upon the verge of something unnecessary?""

"Clancy got a very simple view of the world. Good versus evil. Evil seems to get the upper hand. Good triumphs with vastly superior automatic weapons!"

"Simplicity — the art of maximizing the amount of work not done — is essential."

"'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free."

"When true simplicity is gain'd To bow and to bend we shan't be asham'd, To turn, turn will be our delight 'Till by turning, turning we come round right."

"I was particularly won over by his sweet disposition, by his general kindness, by his simplicity, and by his friendliness."

"Less is more."

"Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art."

"Simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance."

"Simplify, then add lightness"

"The rose has told In one simplicity. That never life Relinquishes a bloom But to bestow An ancient confidence."

"Simplicity is the shortest path to a solution."

"Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability."

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler."

"My views are near to those of Spinoza: admiration for the beauty of and belief in the logical simplicity of the order and harmony which we can grasp humbly and only imperfectly. I believe that we have to content ourselves with our imperfect knowledge and understanding and treat values and moral obligations as a purely human problem — the most important of all human problems."

"What I'm really interested in is whether God could have made the world in a different way; that is, whether the necessity of logical simplicity leaves any freedom at all."

"I am very conscious of the fact that our feelings and strivings are often contradictory and obscure and that they cannot be expressed in easy and simple formulas."

"Nothing is more simple than greatness; indeed, to be simple is to be great."

"Il semble que la perfection soit atteinte non quand il n'y a plus rien à ajouter, mais quand il n'y a plus rien à retrancher."

"Nature has a great simplicity and, therefore, a great beauty."

"Generally nature hangs out a sign of simplicity in the face of a fool."

"Anselm: Stop being so God Damn humble … You know God damn well that … that humility is defiance … simplicity today is sophisticated … simplicity is the ultimate sophistication today."

"In a country as hot as India, a person really requires very few essentials in order to live: one vegetarian meal a day, bread rice, vegetables and lentils, two pieces of clothing to wear, a mat, a blanket, a lota, a water container - just enough to fulfill our bodily requirements. In fact, we don't have a bathroom, shower or toilet here but have to go down to the river to wash, and for everything else we squat among the stones. Cooking takes place outside on an open fire and we sleep on the floor, tucked up on a mat in any place we can find. There is no need for shoes, for it is better to walk barefoot, nor a suitcase because it is sufficient to wrap one's clothes up in a bundle. Mother India is a great teacher of simplicity."

"To me more dear, congenial to my heart, One native charm, than all the gloss of art."

"Science can be very complicated, but there is nothing in its definition that implies it must be, or requires descriptions of science to be written in any sort of special language that only scientists understand. ... The detail and implications of Einstein's theory of relativity may be beyond the understanding of many of us, but it can be described in simple language, which is what Einstein himself used in his own writing."

"All religions are incorporated in the principle of Truth, Simplicity and Love."

"Have pity on my simplicity, for I am but a mortal."

"Keep it simple, stupid."

"The greatest truths are the simplest: and so are the greatest men."

"Christianity does not proceed from the simple in order then to become interesting, witty, profound, a poet, a philosopher, etc. No it is just the opposite: here one begins and then becomes more and more simple, arrives at the simple."

"If you wish to be like a little child, study what a little child could understand — nature; and do what a little child could do — love."

"To gain freedom is to gain simplicity."

"Simplicity is a part of faith."

"Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate."

"I would have written a shorter letter, but I did not have the time."

"If you can't reduce a difficult engineering problem to just one 8-1/2 x 11-inch sheet of paper, you will probably never understand it."

"Fools ignore complexity. Pragmatists suffer it. Some can avoid it. Geniuses remove it."

"Beauty of style and harmony and grace and good rhythm depend on simplicity—I mean the true simplicity of a rightly and nobly ordered mind and character, not that other simplicity which is only a euphemism for folly."

"If we study the history of science we see happen two inverse phenomena, so to speak. Sometimes simplicity hides under complex appearances; sometimes it is the simplicity which is apparent, and which disguises extremely complicated realities. ...What is more complicated than the confused movements of the planets? What simpler than Newton's law? ...In the kinetic theory of gases, one deals with molecules moving with great velocities, whose paths, altered by incessant collisions, have the most capricious forms... The observable result is Mariotte's simple law. ...The law of great numbers has reestablished simplicity in the average. ...No doubt, if our means of investigation should become more and more penetrating, we should discover the simple under the complex, then the complex under the simple, then again the simple under the complex, and so on, without our being able to foresee what will be the last term. We must stop somewhere, and that science may be possible, we must stop when we have found simplicity. This is the only ground on which we can rear the edifice of our generalizations."

"Meryon succeeded in reaching the heights of his art, and achieved both splendour and simplicity through breadth of vision allied to technical skill."

"Kirk: The more complex the mind, the greater the need for the simplicity of play."

"I do not dispute that arguments should be simplified to their maximum... but people often confuse complex ideas that cannot be simplified into a media-friendly statement as symptomatic of a confused mind. ...MBAs tend to blow up in financial markets, as they are trained to simplify... beyond... requirement. (...I am myself the unhappy holder of the degree.)"

"[S]implicity is not so simple to attain."

"Our life is frittered away by detail. … Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb-nail. … Simplify, simplify."

"... actually fairy-stories deal largely, or (the better ones) mainly, with simple or fundamental things, untouched by Fantasy, but these simplicities are made all the more luminous by their setting."

"Human subtlety...will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple or more direct than does nature, because in her inventions nothing is lacking, and nothing is superfluous."

"Simplicity is a state of mind."

"A man is simple when his chief care is the wish to be what he ought to be, that is honestly and naturally human."

"Humanity lives and always has lived on certain elemental provisions."

"Simplicity is part of what I mean by beauty, but it is a simplicity of ideas, not simplicity of a mechanical sort that can be measured by counting equations or symbols."

"If our love were but more simple, We should take Him at His word; And our lives would be all sunshine In the sweetness of the Lord."

""Blessed are the poor in spirit." Blessed are they who are stripped of every thing, even of their own wills, that they may no longer belong to themselves."

"God would behold in you a simplicity which will contain so much the more of His wisdom as it contains less of your own."

"As to our friend, I pray God to bestow upon him a simplicity that shall give him peace. Happy are they indeed who can bear their sufferings in the enjoyment of this simple peace and perfect acquiesence in the will of God."

"True simplicity regards God alone; it has its eye fixed upon Him, and is not drawn toward self; and it is as pleased to say humble as great things. All our uneasy feelings and reflections arise from self-love, whatever appearance of piety they may assume. The lack of simplicity inflicts many wounds. Go where we will, if we remain in ourselves, we shall carry everywhere our sins and our distresses. If we would live in peace, we must lose sight of self, and rest in the infinite and unchangeable God."

"Simplicity and purity are the two wings by which a man is lifted above all earthly things. Simplicity is in the intention — purity in the affection. Simplicity tends to God,— purity apprehends and tastes Him."

"He sows June fields with clover, and the world Broadcasts with little common kindnesses. The plain good souls He sends us, who fulfill Life's homely duties in the daily path With cheerful heart, ambitious of no more Than to supply the wants of friend and kin, Yet serve God's higher love to human hearts; Giving a secret sweetness to the home, The hidden fragrance of a kindly heart, The simple beauty of a useful life, That never dazzles, and that never tires."

"Simpler manners, purer lives; more self-denial; more earnest sympathy with the classes that lie below us, nothing short of that can lay the foundations of the Christianity which is to be hereafter, deep and broad."