Do nothing but what isnecessary. ~Marcus AureliusWhen true simplicity is gain'd To bow and to bend we shan't beasham'd, To turn, turn will be ourdelight 'Till by turning, turning we come round right. ~Joseph Brackett
Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowningreward ofart. ~Frédéric ChopinSimplicity is the keynote of all true elegance. ~Coco ChanelTherose has told In one simplicity. That never life Relinquishes a bloom But to bestow An ancientconfidence.~Nathalia CraneIf ourlove were but more simple, We should take Him at Hisword; And ourlives would be allsunshine In the sweetness of the Lord. ~Frederick William FaberNature has agreat simplicity and, therefore, a greatbeauty. ~Richard FeynmanPlurality ought never be posited withoutnecessity. ~William of OccamHuman subtlety...will never devise an invention morebeautiful, more simple or more direct than doesnature, because in her inventionsnothing is lacking, and nothing is superfluous. ~Leonardo da Vinci
Simplicity is the most deceitful mistress that ever betrayed man.
Armen Agop, quoted by Eltorie, Aida, (2009)Undercurrent, Contemporary Egyptian Art. Art Sawa. Dubai. pg. 32
Do nothing but what isnecessary. ... 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 moreleisure 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 versusevil. Evil seems to get the upper hand. Good triumphs with vastly superior automatic weapons!
Bill Bailey, as quoted in "Spooks, Kooks, Spies and Lies" by Les Marcott inScene4 Magazine (May 2007).
Simplicity — the art of maximizing the amount of work not done — is essential.
Mike Beedle, Arie van Bennekum, Alistair Cockburn, Ward Cunningham, Martin Fowler, Jim Highsmith, Andrew Hunt, Ron Jeffries, Jon Kern, Brian Marick, Robert C. Martin, Ken Schwaber, Jeff Sutherland, Dave Thomas,Principles behind the Agile Manifesto (2001).
'Tis thegift to be simple, 'tis the gift to befree.
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.
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.
Frédéric Chopin, as quoted inIf Not God, Then What? (2007) by Joshua Fost, p. 93.
Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.
Attributed toAlbert Einstein. Possibly paraphrased from remarks in "On the Method of Theoretical Physics", Herbert Spencer Lecture, Oxford (10 June 1933),Philosophy of Science, Vol. 1, No. 2 (April 1934), pp. 163-169, p. 165.
My views are near to those ofSpinoza: 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.
Albert Einstein, in a letter to Murray W. Gross (26 April 1947), quoted inEinstein and Religion (1999).
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.
Albert Einstein, as quoted by Erner Gabor Strauss, his assistant from 1944 - 1948, as translated inThe Scientific Imagination: Case Studies (1978) by Gerald Holton, p. xii.
Variant translation:What I am really interested in is knowing whether God could have created the world in a different way; in other words, whether the requirement of logical simplicity admits a margin of freedom.
As quoted inEinstein and Religion (1999) by Max Jammer, p. 124.
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.
Anselm: Stop being so God Damnhumble … You know God damn well that … that humility is defiance … simplicity today is sophisticated …simplicity is the ultimate sophistication today.
William Gaddis,The Recognitions (1955) p. 457; "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication" was also used as an early slogan at Apple Computer in 1977 (introduction of the Apple II personal computer), and has also been attributed toLeonardo Da Vinci, but no published occurrence of such an attribution has yet been located prior to one inWisdom Through the Ages : Book Two (2003) by Helen Granat, p. 225.
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.
Gaura Devi (2001).Fire of Transformation. My life with Babaji. P. 74
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 speciallanguage that onlyscientists understand. ... The detail and implications ofEinstein'stheory 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.
The greatest truths are the simplest: and so are the greatest men.
J. C. and A. W. Hare,Guesses at Truth; reported inHoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 710.
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.
The Point of View On My Work As An Author bySoren Kierkegaard (finished 1848) published by Peter Christian Kierkegaard 1859 translated by Howard and Edna Hong 1998 Princeton University Press P. 7
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.
Charles Kingsley, in notes of August 1842, published inCharles Kingsley : His Letters and Memories of His Life (1883) edited by Frances Eliza Grenfell Kingsley, p. 65.
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.
Ralph Brazelton Peck, as quoted inRalph B. Peck, Educator and Engineer — The Essence of the Man (2007) by John Dunnicliff and Nancy Peck Young, p. 114.
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 thehistory 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 thanNewton's law? ...In thekinetic 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 isMariotte's simple law. ...Thelaw 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.
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.)
Nassim Nicholas Taleb,Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets (2001) Two: A Bizarre Accounting Method | George Will is No Solon: On Counterintuitive Truths |Humiliated in Debates
[S]implicity is not so simple to attain.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb,Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder (2012) Prologue, p. 11.
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.
... actuallyfairy-stories deal largely, or (the better ones) mainly, with simple or fundamental things, untouched byFantasy, 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 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.
"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.
As to ourfriend, I prayGod to bestow upon him a simplicity that shall give himpeace.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 regardsGod 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 fromself-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 theintention — 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.
