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Simplicity Quotes

Browse 2142 quotes about Simplicity.

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Simplicity Quotes

“At the outset do not be worried about this big question-Truth. It is a very simple matter if each one of you starts with the desire to get as much as possible. No human being is constituted to know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth; and even the best of men must be content with fragments, with partial glimpses, never the full fruition. In this unsatisfied quest the attitude of mind, the desire, the thirst-a thirst that from the soul must arise!-the fervent longing, are the be-all and the end-all.”

IfsKnowsMenMindHumansSoulEndsMatterWholeBigsScienceDesireHuman BeingsSimpleAttitudeLongingSimplicityAriseWorriedQuestsThirstGlimpseFragmentsFerventBig QuestionsFruitionUnsatisfiedWhole TruthBest Of MeNothing But The Truth
Book:Osler's
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“Combining in our survey then, the whole range of deposits from the most recent to the most ancient group, how striking a succession do they present:- so various yet so uniform-so vast yet so connected. In thus tracing back to the most remote periods in the physical history of our continents, one system of operations, as the means by which many complex formations have been successively produced, the mind becomes impressed with the singleness of nature's laws; and in this respect, at least, geology is hardly inferior in simplicity to astronomy.”

MindMeanHas BeensWholeLawScienceNatureHistoryGroupsPeriodsComplexesSimplicityAncientProductionsVariousConnectedAstronomyRangeOperationsContinentsUniformsInferiorsImpressedFormationSuccessionSurveysGeologyCombiningDepositsSinglenessTracing
Book:The silurian system, founded on geological researches in the counties of Salop, Hereford etc
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“Twelve Priceless Qualities of Success: 1. The value of time. 2. The success of perseverance. 3. The pleasure of working. 4. The dignity of simplicity. 5. The worth of character. 6. The power of kindness. 7. The influence of example. 8. The obligation of duty. 9. The wisdom of economy. 10. The virtue of patience. 11. The improvement of talent. 12. The joy of originating.”

CharacterWisdomJoyValuesPleasureQualityKindnessEconomyVirtueInfluenceTalentExampleDutyDignityPerseveranceSimplicityImprovementObligationTwelvePricelessValue Of TimePatience VirtuePower Of Kindness
Author:Marshall Field
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“You may object that by speaking of simplicity and beauty I am introducing aesthetic criteria of truth, and I frankly admit that I am strongly attracted by the simplicity and beauty of mathematical schemes which nature presents us. You must have felt this too: the almost frightening simplicity and wholeness of the relationship, which nature suddenly spreads out before us.”

MayTruthScienceFeltNatureNaturalObjectsSimplicitySpreadMathematicalAestheticIntroducingFrighteningSchemesWholenessCriteria
Author:Werner Heisenberg
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“During the time that [Karl] Landsteiner gave me an education in the field of imununology, I discovered that he and I were thinking about the serologic problem in very different ways. He would ask, What do these experiments force us to believe about the nature of the world? I would ask, What is the most. simple and general picture of the world that we can formulate that is not ruled by these experiments? I realized that medical and biological investigators were not attacking their problems the same way that theoretical physicists do, the way I had been in the habit of doing.”

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Author:Linus Pauling
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“But it is just this characteristic of simplicity in the laws of nature hitherto discovered which it would be fallacious to generalize, for it is obvious that simplicity has been a part cause of their discovery, and can, therefore, give no ground for the supposition that other undiscovered laws are equally simple.”

GivingHas BeensWould BeLawScienceCausesSimpleDiscoverySimplicityObviousCharacteristicsLaws Of NatureSupposition
Book:Mysticism and Logic, and Other Essays
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“Perhaps we see equations as simple because they are easily expressed in terms of mathematical notation already invented at an earlier stage of development of the science, and thus what appears to us as elegance of description really reflects the interconnectedness of Nature's laws at different levels.”

DifferentLawScienceTermNatureSimpleLevelsStageExpressionDevelopmentSimplicityMathematicalDescriptionEquationsEleganceInterconnectednessDifferent LevelsStages Of Development
Author:Murray Gell-Mann
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“A great part of its theories derives an additional charm from the peculiarity that important propositions, with the impress of simplicity on them, are often easily discovered by induction, and yet are of so profound a character that we cannot find the demonstrations till after many vain attempts; and even then, when we do succeed, it is often by some tedious and artificial process, while the simple methods may long remain concealed.”

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Author:Carl Friedrich Gauss
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“The research worker, in his efforts to express the fundamental laws of Nature in mathematical form, should strive mainly for mathematical beauty. He should take simplicity into consideration in a subordinate way to beauty ... It often happens that the requirements of simplicity and beauty are the same, but where they clash, the latter must take precedence.”

WayShouldHappensFormLawScienceEffortResearchFundamentalsStriveWorkersSimplicityMathematicalConsiderationLatterRequirementsLaws Of NatureClashSubordinatesPrecedenceMathematical Beauty
Author:Paul Dirac
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“In this communication I wish first to show in the simplest case of the hydrogen atom (nonrelativistic and undistorted) that the usual rates for quantization can be replaced by another requirement, in which mention of "whole numbers" no longer occurs. Instead the integers occur in the same natural way as the integers specifying the number of nodes in a vibrating string. The new conception can be generalized, and I believe it touches the deepest meaning of the quantum rules.”

WayFirstsBelieveWholeShowsScienceI BelieveWishNaturalNumbersCasesCommunicationRateSimplicityStringsConceptionAtomsUsualQuantumReplacedRequirementsSimplestHydrogenIntegersHydrogen Atom
Author:Erwin Schrodinger
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“The Christian religion, when divested of the rags in which they [the clergy] have enveloped it, and brought to the original purity and simplicity of it's benevolent institutor, is a religion of all others most friendly to liberty, science, and the freest expansion of the human mind.”

MindHumansChristianLibertyOriginalsSimplicityPositive AtheismCivil RightsPurityFriendlyHuman MindExpansionBenevolentRagsClergy
Book:Memoir, correspondence, and miscellanies from the papers of T. Jefferson
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“The greatest wisdom is in simplicity. Love, respect, tolerance, sharing, gratitude, forgiveness. It's not complex or elaborate. The real knowledge is free. It's encoded in your DNA. All you need is within you. Great teachers have said that from the beginning. Find your heart, and you will find your way.”

WayNeedsHeartSaidRealTeacherGratitudeComplexesSimplicityToleranceWithin YouDnaGreat TeacherLove RespectReal KnowledgeGreatest Wisdom
Author:Carlos Barrios
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“Most of what we say and do is not essential. If you can eliminate it, you'll have more time, and more tranquillity. Ask yourself at every moment, 'Is this necessary?'”

IfsMomentsAsksFocusEssentialsSimplicityMore TimeTranquillity
Book:The Modern Library Collection of Greek and Roman Philosophy 3-Book Bundle: Meditations; Selected Dialogues of Plato; The Basic Works of Aristotle
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“If Christianity was something we were making up, of course we could make it easier. But it is not. We cannot compete, in simplicity with people who are inventing religions. How could we? We are dealing with Fact. Of course anyone can be simple if he has no facts to bother about.”

PeopleIfsFactsCoursesSimpleChristianityEasierIslamSimplicityBotherCultInventingMaking Up
Book:A Mind Awake: An Anthology of C. S. Lewis
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“Don't let yourself forget that God's grace rewards not only those who never slip, but also those who bend and fall. So sing! The song of rejoicing softens hard hearts. It makes tears of godly sorrow flow from them. Singing summons the Holy Spirit. Happy praises offered in simplicity and love lead the faithful to complete harmony, without discord. Don't stop singing.”

HeartHardSpiritSongFallForgetChristianityGraceTearsSorrowHolySingingFlowAnd LovePraiseHarmonyRewardsSimplicityFaithfulHoly SpiritSlipsRejoiceGodlyGod's GraceDiscord
Author:Hildegard of Bingen
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“What attracted me to immunology was that the whole thing seemed to revolve around a very simple experiment: take two different antibody molecules and compare their primary sequences. The secret of antibody diversity would emerge from that. Fortunately at the time I was sufficiently ignorant of the subject not to realise how naive I was being.”

TwoDifferentWholeScienceSimpleSecretSubjectsIgnoranceDiversitySimplicityExperimentsIgnorantPrimariesCompareRealisingNaiveSequenceMoleculesAntibodies
Author:Cesar Milstein
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“A bizarre sensation pervades a relationship of pretense. No truth seems true. A simple morning's greeting and response appear loaded with innuendo and fraught with implications. Each nicety becomes more sterile and each withdrawal more permanent.”

LoveSeemsTruthSimpleMorningResponseSimplicityPermanentSensationsBizarreImplicationsPretenseLoadedWithdrawalGreetingsInnuendoNiceties
Book:The Collected Autobiographies of Maya Angelou
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“That the fundamental aspects of heredity should have turned out to be so extraordinarily simple supports us in the hope that nature may, after all, be entirely approachable. Her much-advertised inscrutability has once more been found to be an illusion due to our ignorance. This is encouraging, for, if the world in which we live were as complicated as some of our friends would have us believe we might well despair that biology could ever become an exact science.”

IfsWorldShouldBelieveWellsMayMightFoundSimpleSupportIgnoranceDespairIllusionAspectShould HaveFundamentalsSimplicityComplicatedDuesIgnorantBiologyHeredityExact Sciences
Book:The Physical basis of heredity
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“These are some of the characteristics of the state of mind which the creation and appreciation of haiku demand: Selflessness, Loneliness, Grateful Acceptance, Wordlessness, Non-intellectuality, Contradictoriness, Humor, Freedom, Non-morality, Simplicity, Materiality, Love, and Courage.”

LoveMindStatesLonelinessCreationAcceptanceMoralityDemandGratefulSimplicityAppreciationCharacteristicsState Of MindSelflessnessHaikuMaterialityLove And Courage
Author:Reginald Horace Blyth
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“There was, I think, a feeling that the best science was that done in the simplest way. In experimental work, as in mathematics, there was "style" and a result obtained with simple equipment was more elegant than one obtained with complicated apparatus, just as a mathematical proof derived neatly was better than one involving laborious calculations. Rutherford's first disintegration experiment, and Chadwick's discovery of the neutron had a "style" that is different from that of experiments made with giant accelerators.”

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Author:J. A. Ratcliffe
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“For if as scientists we seek simplicity, then obviously we try the simplest surviving theory first, and retreat from it only when it proves false. Not this course, but any other, requires explanation. If you want to go somewhere quickly, and several alternate routes are equally likely to be open, no one asks why you take the shortest. The simplest theory is to be chosen not because it is the most likely to be true but because it is scientifically the most rewarding among equally likely alternatives. We aim at simplicity and hope for truth.”

IfsWantTryingFirstsScienceCoursesAsksTheoryProveScientistAimSimplicityChosenBeing TrueAlternativesExplanationRoutesRetreatSimplestSurvivingScientific Method
Author:Nelson Goodman
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“Why it is that animals, instead of developing in a simple and straightforward way, undergo in the course of their growth a series of complicated changes, during which they often acquire organs which have no function, and which, after remaining visible for a short time, disappear without leaving a trace ... To the Darwinian, the explanation of such facts is obvious. The stage when the tadpole breathes by gills is a repetition of the stage when the ancestors of the frog had not advanced in the scale of development beyond a fish.”

WayFactsScienceCoursesGrowthSimpleAnimalStageDevelopmentFunctionSeriesLeavingSimplicityFishesObviousComplicatedBreatheDisappearScalesDevelopingExplanationVisibleAcquireAncestorOrgansRepetitionStraightforwardFrogsShort TimeTadpoles
Author:Francis Maitland Balfour
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“The Unexpected stalks a farm in big boots like a vagrant bent on havoc. Not every farmer is an inventor, but the good ones have the seeds of invention within them. Economy and efficiency move their relentless tinkering and yet the real motive often seems to be aesthetic. The mind that first designed a cutter bar is not far different from a mind that can take the intractable steel of an outsized sickle blade and make it hum in the end. The question is how to reduce the simplicity that constitutes a problem ("It's simple; it's broke.") to the greater simplicity that constitutes a solution.”

MindFirstsDifferentRealEndsProblemBigsSeemsMovingScienceSimpleEconomyGreaterSolutionsSimplicitySeedsBarsInventionBrokeMotiveUnexpectedFarmsFarmersAestheticBootsEfficiencySteelBentBladesInventorRelentlessStalkingHavocCuttersTinkeringVagrants
Author:Verlyn Klinkenborg
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“The world is very complicated and it is clearly impossible for the human mind to understand it completely. Man has therefore devised an artifice which permits the complicated nature of the world to be blamed on something which is called accidental and thus permits him to abstract a domain in which simple laws can be found.”

MenWorldMindHumansLawScienceFoundUnderstandingNatureSimpleImpossibleBlameSimplicityComplicatedAbstractHuman MindPermitDomainArtifice
Book:Philosophical Reflections and Syntheses
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