Quotes and Sayings about Simplicity
"Simplicity is the most deceitful mistress that ever betrayed man."
- Henry B. Adams
(Related: Man, Simplicity)
"Simplicity should not be identified with bareness."
- Felix Adler
(Related: Simplicity)
"What's really important is to simplify. The work of most photographers would be improved immensely if they could do one thing: get rid of the extraneous. If you strive for simplicity, you are more likely to reach the viewer."
- William Albert Allard
(Related: Work, Simplicity)
"The line that describes the beautiful is elliptical. It has simplicity and constant change. It cannot be described by a compass, and it changes direction at every one of its points."
- Rudolf Arnheim
(Related: Change, Direction, Simplicity)
"Simplicity is natures first step, and the last of art."
- Philip James Bailey
(Related: Art, First, Simplicity)
"Guided only by their feeling for symmetry, simplicity, and generality, and an indefinable sense of the fitness of things, creative mathematicians now, as in the past, are inspired by the art of mathematics rather than by any prospect of ultimate usefulness."
- E. T. Bell
(Related: Art, Fitness, Feeling, Mathematicians, Mathematics, Now, Past, Sense, Simplicity, Usefulness)
"Simplicity is the key."
- Ritchie Blackmore
(Related: Key, Simplicity)
"The great seal of truth is simplicity."
- Herman Boerhaave
(Related: Truth, Simplicity)
"Partial culture runs to the ornate, extreme culture to simplicity."
- Christian Nestell Bovee
(Related: Culture, Extreme, Simplicity)
"Simplicity is not an objective in art, but one achieves simplicity despite one's self by entering into the real sense of things."
- Constantin Brancusi
(Related: Art, Self, Sense, Simplicity)
"There is no single development, in either technology or management technique, which by itself promises even one order-of-magnitude improvement within a decade in productivity, in reliability, in simplicity."
- Frederick P. Brooks, Jr.
(Related: Technology, Development, Management, Improvement, Order, Productivity, Promises, Simplicity)
"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."
- Frederic Chopin
(Related: Art, Achievement, Quantity, Reward, Simplicity)
"No simplicity of mind, no obscurity of station, can escape the universal duty of questioning all that we believe."
- William Kingdon Clifford
(Related: Duty, Mind, Obscurity, Questioning, Simplicity)
"The actual tragedies of life bear no relation to one's preconceived ideas. In the event, one is always bewildered by their simplicity, their grandeur of design, and by that element of the bizarre which seems inherent in them."
- Jean Cocteau
(Related: Life, Design, Ideas, Bizarre, Simplicity)
"The common faults of American language are an ambition of effect, a want of simplicity, and a turgid abuse of terms."
- James F. Cooper
(Related: Abuse, Ambition, American, Effect, Faults, Language, Simplicity, Want)
"And yes, there's a simplicity to writing books because you're not a member of a team, so you make all the decisions yourself instead of deferring to a committee."
- Bernard Cornwell
(Related: Books, Committee, Decisions, Simplicity, Writing)
"For simplicity one can think of the + class as having one extra base at some point or other in the genetic message and the - class as having one too few."
- Francis Crick
(Related: Class, Simplicity)
"I add, that those who are bent on restoring the whole church ought to be well instructed in the word, and to abstain from doing anything under the pretext of simplicity."
- John Nelson Darby
(Related: Church, Simplicity, Word)
"A taste for simplicity cannot endure for long."
- Eugene Delacroix
(Related: Simplicity, Taste)
"Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability."
- Edsger Dijkstra
(Related: Simplicity)
"They are unique in the simplicity, the diversity, the related harmony of the forms of life that they enclose."
- Marjory Stoneman Douglas
(Related: Life, Diversity, Harmony, Simplicity)
"As I grew older, I realized that it was much better to insist on the genuine forms of nature, for simplicity is the greatest adornment of art."
- Albrecht Durer
(Related: Art, Nature, Simplicity)
"The native American has been generally despised by his white conquerors for his poverty and simplicity."
- Charles Eastman
(Related: American, Poverty, Simplicity)
"The simplicity and uniformity of rural occupations, and their incessant practice, preclude any anxieties and agitations of hope and fear, to which employments of a more precarious and casual nature are subject."
- William Falconer
(Related: Nature, Fear, Hope, Occupations, Practice, Simplicity)
"Simplicity is an acquired taste. Mankind, left free, instinctively complicates life."
- Katharine Fullerton Gerould
(Related: Life, Mankind, Simplicity, Taste)
"A snowball is simple, direct and familiar to most of us. I use this simplicity as a container for feelings and ideas that function on many levels."
- Andy Goldsworthy
(Related: Feelings, Ideas, Simplicity)
"In requiring this candor and simplicity of mind in those who would investigate the truth of our religion, Christianity demands nothing more than is readily conceded to every branch of human science."
- Simon Greenleaf
(Related: Science, Religion, Truth, Christianity, Candor, Mind, Nothing, Simplicity)
"I despise simplicity. It is the negation of all that is beautiful."
- Norman Hartnell
(Related: Simplicity)
"Progress is man's ability to complicate simplicity."
- Thor Heyerdahl
(Related: Progress, Ability, Man, Simplicity)
"Is it not in the most absolute simplicity that real genius plies its pinions the most wonderfully?"
- E. T. A. Hoffmann
(Related: Genius, Simplicity)
"Understanding reduces the greatest to simplicity, and lack of its causes the least to take on the magnitude."
- Raymond Holliwell
(Related: Causes, Simplicity, Understanding)
"Simplicity, clarity, singleness: These are the attributes that give our lives power and vividness and joy as they are also the marks of great art. They seem to be the purpose of God for his whole creation."
- Richard Holloway
(Related: Power, Art, God, Purpose, Clarity, Creation, Joy, Simplicity)
"Fishing is much more than fish. It is the great occasion when we may return to the fine simplicity of our forefathers."
- Herbert Hoover
(Related: Fish, Fishing, May, Simplicity)
"The art of simplicity is a puzzle of complexity."
- Douglas Horton
(Related: Art, Complexity, Simplicity)
"I cannot consent that my mortal body shall be laid in a repository prepared for an Emperor or a King my republican feelings and principles forbid it the simplicity of our system of government forbids it."
- Andrew Jackson
(Related: Government, Feelings, Body, Principles, Republican, Simplicity)
"I hate American simplicity. I glory in the piling up of complications of every sort. If I could pronounce the name James in any different or more elaborate way I should be in favor of doing it."
- Henry James
(Related: American, Glory, Hate, Name, Simplicity)
"Simplicity is a great element of good breeding."
- Fanny Kemble
(Related: Breeding, Simplicity)
"Purity and simplicity are the two wings with which man soars above the earth and all temporary nature."
- Thomas Kempis
(Related: Nature, Earth, Man, Purity, Simplicity)
"Simplicity makes me happy."
- Alicia Keys
(Related: Simplicity)
"One of our theories is that one can offset this excessive compulsion toward the spectacular with a return to simplicity."
- Rem Koolhaas
(Related: Simplicity, Theories)
"I wish I had invented blue jeans. They have expression, modesty, sex appeal, simplicity - all I hope for in my clothes."
- Yves Saint Laurent
(Related: Sex, Hope, Clothes, Expression, Modesty, Sex appeal, Simplicity)
"I have often said that I wish I had invented blue jeans: the most spectacular, the most practical, the most relaxed and nonchalant. They have expression, modesty, sex appeal, simplicity - all I hope for in my clothes."
- Yves Saint Laurent
(Related: Sex, Hope, Clothes, Expression, Modesty, Sex appeal, Simplicity)
"When the subject is strong, simplicity is the only way to treat it."
- Jacob Lawrence
(Related: Simplicity)
"Writing is no trouble: you just jot down ideas as they occur to you. The jotting is simplicity itself - it is the occurring which is difficult."
- Stephen Leacock
(Related: Ideas, Simplicity, Writing)
"To me, the extraordinary aspect of martial arts lies in its simplicity. The easy way is also the right way, and martial arts is nothing at all special; the closer to the true way of martial arts, the less wastage of expression there is."
- Bruce Lee
(Related: Expression, Lies, Nothing, Right, Simplicity)
"The noble simplicity in the works of nature only too often originates in the noble shortsightedness of him who observes it."
- Georg C. Lichtenberg
(Related: Nature, Simplicity)
"What is so brilliant about the gadgets is their simplicity."
- Desmond Llewelyn
(Related: Simplicity)
"Simplicity in character, in manners, in style; in all things the supreme excellence is simplicity."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Character, Excellence, Manners, Simplicity, Style)
"In character, in manner, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity."
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
(Related: Character, Excellence, Simplicity, Style)
"So with that will prompt and prepared to serve all those whom I perceive to be servants of my Lord, I will speak of three things with simplicity and love as if I were speaking to my own soul."
- Ignatius Loyola
(Related: Love, Soul, Simplicity, Will)
"Pop doesn't really look back. It can't. What makes pop work is simplicity."
- Branford Marsalis
(Related: Work, Simplicity)
"I don't need a lot of money. Simplicity is the answer for me."
- Linda McCartney
(Related: Money, Simplicity)
"The ordinary acts we practice every day at home are of more importance to the soul than their simplicity might suggest."
- Thomas More
(Related: Home, Soul, Day, Importance, Practice, Simplicity)
"Painting picture by picture, I followed the impressions my eye took in at heightened moments. I painted only memories, adding nothing, no details that I did not see. Hence the simplicity of the paintings, their emptiness."
- Edvard Munch
(Related: Eye, Memories, Moments, Nothing, Painting, Simplicity)
"Nobility of spirit has more to do with simplicity than ostentation, wisdom rather than wealth, commitment rather than ambition."
- Riccardo Muti
(Related: Wisdom, Wealth, Ambition, Commitment, Nobility, Ostentation, Simplicity, Spirit)
"I believe that the Apple Shuffle is an excellent compromise among the conflicting requirements of simplicity, elegance, size, battery life, and function."
- Donald Norman
(Related: Life, Compromise, Elegance, Simplicity)
"As beautiful as simplicity is, it can become a tradition that stands in the way of exploration."
- Laura Nyro
(Related: Exploration, Simplicity, Tradition)
"Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it."
- Alan Perlis
(Related: Complexity, Simplicity)
"Unnecessary possessions are unnecessary burdens. If you have them, you have to take care of them! There is great freedom in simplicity of living. It is those who have enough but not too much who are the happiest."
- Peace Pilgrim
(Related: Care, Freedom, Living, Possessions, Simplicity)
"Of Manners gentle, of Affections mild; In Wit a man; Simplicity, a child."
- Alexander Pope
(Related: Man, Manners, Simplicity, Wit)
"There is a certain majesty in simplicity which is far above all the quaintness of wit."
- Alexander Pope
(Related: Simplicity, Wit)
"Simplicity is not the goal. It is the by-product of a good idea and modest expectations."
- Paul Rand
(Related: Idea, Goal, Expectations, Simplicity)
"UNIX is basically a simple operating system, but you have to be a genius to understand the simplicity."
- Dennis Ritchie
(Related: Genius, Simplicity, Unix)
"Simplicity is the most difficult thing to secure in this world; it is the last limit of experience and the last effort of genius."
- George Sand
(Related: Experience, Genius, Effort, Simplicity, World)
"The spirit's foe in man has not been simplicity, but sophistication."
- George Santayana
(Related: Man, Simplicity, Sophistication, Spirit)
"A logical analysis of reflexive usages in French shows, however, that this simplicity is an illusion and that, so far from helping the foreigner, it is more calculated to bother him."
- Edward Sapir
(Related: Illusion, Simplicity)
"French and German illustrate the misleading character of apparent grammatical simplicity just as well."
- Edward Sapir
(Related: Character, Misleading, Simplicity)
"These examples of the lack of simplicity in English and French, all appearances to the contrary, could be multiplied almost without limit and apply to all national languages."
- Edward Sapir
(Related: English, Simplicity)
"One of the glories of English simplicity is the possibility of using the same word as noun and verb."
- Edward Sapir
(Related: Possibility, English, Simplicity, Word)
"The English language has a deceptive air of simplicity; so have some little frocks; but they are both not the kind of thing you can run up in half an hour with a machine."
- Dorothy L. Sayers
(Related: English, Language, Machine, Simplicity)
"Grandeur and beauty are so very opposite, that you often diminish the one as you increase the other. Variety is most akin to the latter, simplicity to the former."
- William Shenstone
(Related: Beauty, Simplicity, Variety)
"I just like simplicity. I like simple songs, I like simple chords, simple vocals, simple lead guitar. I just like simplicity. That's just the way I like it."
- Jeremy Spencer
(Related: Guitar, Simplicity, Songs)
"The genius of the French language, descended from its single Latin stock, has triumphed most in the contrary direction - in simplicity, in unity, in clarity, and in restraint."
- Lytton Strachey
(Related: Genius, Clarity, Direction, Language, Restraint, Simplicity, Unity)
"My philosophy? Simplicity plus variety."
- Hank Stram
(Related: Philosophy, Simplicity, Variety)
"The absence of the heavy boot of Europe has preserved to these people the agile walk of the wild animal, while the general simplicity of their lives has given them many other points of physical perfection."
- John Millington Synge
(Related: People, Absence, Europe, Perfection, Simplicity)
"The main purpose of science is simplicity and as we understand more things, everything is becoming simpler."
- Edward Teller
(Related: Science, Purpose, Simplicity)
"There is no greatness where there is no simplicity, goodness and truth."
- Leo Tolstoy
(Related: Truth, Greatness, Goodness, Simplicity)
"Manifest plainness, embrace simplicity, reduce selfishness, have few desires."
- Lao Tzu
(Related: Selfishness, Simplicity)
"I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures."
- Lao Tzu
(Related: Compassion, Patience, Simplicity)
"Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."
- Leonardo da Vinci
(Related: Simplicity, Sophistication)
"Simplicity is a state of mind."
- Charles Wagner
(Related: Mind, Simplicity, State)
"Simplicity is making the journey of this life with just baggage enough."
- Charles Dudley Warner
(Related: Life, Journey, Simplicity)
"The guiding motto in the life of every natural philosopher should be, seek simplicity and distrust it."
- Alfred North Whitehead
(Related: Life, Distrust, Simplicity)
"Seek simplicity but distrust it."
- Alfred North Whitehead
(Related: Distrust, Simplicity)
"Simplicity is the glory of expression."
- Walt Whitman
(Related: Expression, Glory, Simplicity)
"The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity."
- Walt Whitman
(Related: Art, Expression, Glory, Letters, Light, Simplicity)
"Even before string theory, especially as physics developed in the 20th century, it turned out that the equations that really work in describing nature with the most generality and the greatest simplicity are very elegant and subtle."
- Edward Witten
(Related: Nature, Work, Physics, Simplicity, Theory)
"I find that to be a fool as to worldly wisdom, and to commit my cause to God, not fearing to offend men, who take offence at the simplicity of truth, is the only way to remain unmoved at the sentiments of others."
- John Woolman
(Related: God, Men, Wisdom, Truth, Cause, Fool, Simplicity)
"Organic architecture seeks superior sense of use and a finer sense of comfort, expressed in organic simplicity."
- Frank Lloyd Wright
(Related: Architecture, Comfort, Sense, Simplicity)
"Simplicity and repose are the qualities that measure the true value of any work of art."
- Frank Lloyd Wright
(Related: Art, Work, Measure, Simplicity, Value)
"And so from that, I've always been fascinated with the idea that complexity can come out of such simplicity."
- Will Wright
(Related: Idea, Complexity, Simplicity)