Best Parsimony Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

Source: Art and Visual Perception: A Psychology of the Creative Eye

“My father died when I was two years old. But my mother was quite capable. She raised three children with his war pension which was peanuts. Yet we did not want for anything. We grew up with a certain parsimony, which is a nice thing. Then if life gives you more good, otherwise you get used to. I'm still thrifty.”

“A parsimony of words prodigal of sense.”

Brevity Prodigals Parsimony

Book:Curiosities of literature

Source: Curiosities of literature

“Expense, and great expense, may be an essential part in true economy. If parsimony were to be considered as one of the kinds of that virtue, there is, however, another and a higher economy. Economy is a distinctive virtue, and consists not in saving, but in selection.”

Ifs Kind May Economy Virtue Higher Essentials Saving Expenses Selection Distinctive Parsimony

Author:Edmund Burke

“What in the rising man was industry and economy, becomes in the rich man parsimony and avarice.”

Men Economy Rich Industry Greed Rising Avarice Rich Man Parsimony

Book:Ladies' Magazine and Literary Gazette

Source: Ladies' Magazine and Literary Gazette

“Capitals are increased by parsimony, and diminished by prodigalityand misconduct. By what a frugal man annually saves he not onlyaffords maintenance to an additional number of productive hands?but?he establishes as it were a perpetual fund for the maintenance of an equal number in all times to come.”

Men Hands Numbers Equal All Time Productive Fund Perpetual Maintenance Frugal Misconduct Parsimony

Author:Adam Smith

“Economy is a distributive virtue, and consists not in saving but selection. Parsimony requires no providence, no sagacity, no powers of combination, no comparison, no judgment.”

Economy Virtue Judgment Saving Combination Comparison Providence Selection Sagacity Parsimony

Book:The Beauties of Burke, Consisting of Selections from His Works

Source: The Beauties of Burke, Consisting of Selections from His Works

“Evolutionary biologists often appeal to parsimony when they seek to explain why organisms "match" with respect to a given trait. For example, why do almost all the organisms that are alive today on our planet use the same genetic code? If they share a common ancestor, the code could have evolved just once and then been inherited from the most recent common ancestor that present organisms share. On the other hand, if organisms in different species share no common ancestors, the code must have evolved repeatedly.”

Ifs Different Use Hands Today Given Common Alive Share Example Planets Species Appeals Code Ancestor Traits Organisms Our Planet Live For Today Biologist Parsimony

Author:Elliott Sober

“Scientists often talk of parsimony (as in "the simplest explanation is probably correct," also known as Occam's razor), but we should not get seduced by the apparent elegance of argument from parsimony; this line of reasoning has failed in the past at least as many times as it has succeeded.”

Should Past Lines Known Argument Scientist Explanation Reasoning Simplest Elegance Razors Occam's Razor Parsimony

Book:Incognito: The Secret Lives of The Brain

Source: Incognito: The Secret Lives of The Brain

“It is more parsimonious to assume that the sun goes around the Earth, that atoms at the smallest scale operate in accordance with the same rules that objects at larger scales follow, and that we perceive what is really out there. All of these positions were long defended by argument from parsimony, and they were all wrong.”

Long Earth Sun Position Objects Argument Assuming Scales Perceive Atoms Smallest Parsimony

Book:Incognito: The Secret Lives of The Brain

Source: Incognito: The Secret Lives of The Brain

“In my view, the argument from parsimony is really no argument at all - it typically functions only to shut down more interesting discussion. If history is any guide, it's never a good idea to assume that a scientiﬁc problem is cornered.”

Ifs Ideas Problem Interesting Views Argument Function Assuming Guides Discussion Good Ideas Cornered Parsimony

Book:Incognito: The Secret Lives of The Brain

Source: Incognito: The Secret Lives of The Brain

“If time is money, it seems moral to save time, above all one's own, and such parsimony is excused by consideration for others. One is straight-forward.”

Ifs Seems Moral Consideration Time And Money Time Is Money Consideration For Others Parsimony

Book:Minima Moralia: Reflections on a Damaged Life

Source: Minima Moralia: Reflections on a Damaged Life

“Mere parsimony is not economy. Expense, and great expense, may be an essential part in true economy.”

May Economy Essentials Commitment Mere Expenses Economy And Economics Parsimony

Book:Delphi Complete Works of Edmund Burke (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Complete Works of Edmund Burke (Illustrated)

“The mentally disturbed do not employ the Principle of Scientific Parsimony: the most simple theory to explain a given set of facts. They shoot for the baroque.”

Facts Given Simple Principles Theory Disturbed Baroque Parsimony

Book:Valis

Source: Valis

“It really comes down to parsimony, economy of explanation. It is possible that your car engine is driven by psychokinetic energy, but if it looks like a petrol engine, smells like a petrol engine and performs exactly as well as a petrol engine, the sensible working hypothesis is that it is a petrol engine.”

Ifs Wells Looks Energy Economy Crazy Car Mad Smell Driven Explanation Engines Sensible Hypothesis Petrol Parsimony

Author:Richard Dawkins

“Nothing perhaps has so retarded the reception of the higher conclusions of Geology among men in general, as ... [the] instinctive parsimony of the human mind in matters where time is concerned.”

Men Mind Humans Matter Science Time Higher Concerned Conclusion Human Mind Geology Reception Retarded Parsimony

Author:Charles Lapworth

“While society cannot provide employment for its members, the production/work/income nexus has to be abandoned as a justification for our present parsimony to the unemployed. An assumption cannot be used to justify making second-class citizens of those who are unfortunate enough to constitute living proof of the inaccuracy of that assumption.”

“There is nothing worse than being ashamed of parsimony or poverty.”

Poverty Ashamed Parsimony

Author:Livy

“With parsimony a little is sufficient; without it nothing is sufficient; but frugality makes a poor man rich.”

Men Littles Poor Money Rich Sufficient Poor Man Frugality Parsimony

Author:Seneca the Younger

“I would rather be a beggar and spend my money like a king, than be a king and spend money like a beggar.”

Money Kings Beggar Parsimony

Book:Lectures of Col. R.G. Ingersoll: Including His Letters on the Chinese God--Is Suicide a Sin?--The Right to One's Life--etc. Etc. Etc

Source: Lectures of Col. R.G. Ingersoll: Including His Letters on the Chinese God--Is Suicide a Sin?--The Right to One's Life--etc. Etc. Etc

“Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.”

“Economy is a distributive virtue, and consists not in saving but in selection.”

Economy Virtue Saving Selection Thrift Parsimony

Book:The Beauties of Burke, Consisting of Selections from His Works

Source: The Beauties of Burke, Consisting of Selections from His Works

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Parsimony Quotes