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Simplicity Quotes

Browse 2142 quotes about Simplicity.

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Simplicity Quotes

“It seems to me that the idea of a personal God is an anthropological concept which I cannot take seriously. I feel also not able to imagine some will or goal outside the human sphere. My views are near those of Spinoza: admiration for the beauty of and belief in the logical simplicity of the order 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.”

FeelsBelieveHumansImportantIdeasProblemSeemsAbleValuesOrderBeliefI BelieveUnderstandingGoalViewsMoralImagineConceptsTreatsSimplicityObligationLogicalAdmirationSpheresImperfectMoral ObligationHuman ProblemsKnowledge And UnderstandingSpinozaValues And Morals
Author:Albert Einstein
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“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”

LifeInspirationalWisdomHappinessLife IsSimpleAttitudeMorningTeacherHuman NaturePositivePositive ThinkingLife PhilosophyWise WordsPoliticianWords Of WisdomLife And LivingYogaSimplicityPositivityComplicatedCleverThis LifePositive AttitudeComplexityMeaning Of LifeMost PowerfulBad AssSimple LifeMeaningful LifeMake You ThinkSimplifyWise Man Once SaidSimple ThingsMinimalismSimple LivingComplicationThink PositiveWherever You AreLife Is GoodLife And HappinessSuperior ManMinimalistConfucianismMaking A LivingAncient WisdomLess Is MoreYou Make Me HappyChinese PhilosophyKeep It SimpleReally PowerfulSimple WaysLive Life To Its FullestLife LivingPlain And SimpleLiving A Simple LifeComplicated ThingsChinese PhilosopherEnjoy Your LifeReally LivingLife Being ShortLife Is SimpleLive Life Happy InspirationalLive HappyHe Makes Me HappySimple HappinessSimplifying LifeGreat InspirationalComplicated LifeSimplifying Your LifeWise ChineseSimple And ComplexCreating YourselfLife Is ComplicatedComplicated WorldSmall SimpleSimply Beautiful
Author:Confucius
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“Before I studied the art, a punch to me was just like a punch, a kick just like a kick. After I learned the art, a punch was no longer a punch, a kick no longer a kick. Now that I've understood the art, a punch is just like a punch, a kick just like a kick. The height of cultivation is really nothing special. It is merely simplicity; the ability to express the utmost with the minimum.”

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Author:Bruce Lee
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“Rushing to optimize before the bottlenecks are known may be the only error to have ruined more designs than feature creep. From tortured code to incomprehensible data layouts, the results of obsessing about speed or memory or disk usage at the expense of transparency and simplicity are everywhere. They spawn innumerable bugs and cost millions of man-hours - often, just to get marginal gains in the use of some resource much less expensive than debugging time”

MenMayUseHoursMemoriesResultsKnownMillionsDesignCostGainsResourcesErrorsSimplicitySpeedDataCodeFeaturesExpensiveExpensesRuinedBugsTransparencyCreepsRushingUsageSpawnObsessingDiskLayoutDebuggingBottlenecks
Book:The Art of UNIX Programming
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“The simple person lives the way he breathes, with no more effort or glory, with no more affectation and without shame Simplicity is freedom, buoyancy, transparency. As simple as the air, as free as the air The simple person does not take himself too seriously or too tragicallyHe has nothing to prove, since he has no appearances to keep up, and nothing to seek, since everything is before him. What is more simple than simplicity? What is lighter? It is the virtue of wise men and the wisdom of saints.”

MenWayPersonsDoeSimpleEffortVirtueWiseAirProveGloryShameSimplicitySaintAppearanceBreatheTransparencyLightersBuoyancySimple Person
Author:Andre Comte-Sponville
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“Everything is complex and everything is simple. The rose has no why attached to it, it blooms because it blooms, how no thought of itself, or desire to be seen. What could be more complicated than a rose for someone who wants to understand it? What could be simpler for someone who wants nothing? The complexity of thinking, the simplicity of beholding.”

ThinkingWantDesireSimpleRoseComplexesChaosSimplicityComplicatedComplexitySimple Life
Author:Andre Comte-Sponville
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“Personally, I am always more impressed by simplicity, clarity; it is the mark of a writer who knows his subject well and is secure enough not to 'lay it on' in the telling. Aim for complexity of thought, not expression.”

KnowsWellsEnoughSubjectsExpressionMarkAimLaysSimplicityClaritySecureComplexityImpressed
Book:The First Five Pages: A Writer's Guide to Staying Out of the Rejection Pile
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“I once heard a woman who had lost her dog say that she felt as though a color were suddenly missing from her world: the dog had introduced to her field of vision some previously unavailable hue and without a dog, that color was gone. That seemed to capture the experience of loving a dog with eminent simplicity. I'd amend it only slightly and say that if we are open to what they have to give, dogs can introduce us to several colors with names like wildness, nurturance, trust and joy.”

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Author:Caroline Knapp
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“We in the "developed" world seem to have many auditory strategies that insulate us from the presence of silence, simplicity, and solitude. When I return to Western culture after time in desert, mountain or forest, I discover how we have filled our world with a multiplicity of noises, a symphony of forgetfulness that keeps our won thoughts and realizations, feelings and intuitions out of audible range.”

WorldFeelingsSeemsCultureSilenceReturnSolitudeMountainFilledStrategyWesternSimplicityIntuitionForestsNoiseRealizationDesertRangeOur WorldSymphonyForgetfulnessMultiplicityWestern CultureAuditory
Book:The Fruitful Darkness: A Journey Through Buddhist Practice and Tribal Wisdom
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“Why not simply honor your parents, love your children, help your brothers and sisters, be faithful to your friends, care for your mate with devotion, complete your work cooperatively and joyfully, assume responsibility for problems, practice virtue without first demanding it of others, understand the highest truths yet retain an ordinary manner? That would be true clarity, true simplicity, true mastery.”

FirstsChildrenHelpingProblemWould BeCareFaithParentResponsibilityPracticeVirtueLove YouBrotherHonorHighestOrdinaryOur ChildrenAssumingSimplicityDevotionClarityBeing TrueFaithfulYour ChildrenAssumptionWhy NotMatesMasteryBrothers And SistersSisterYour BrotherBeing FaithfulParents LoveCare For YouLove Your Children
Book:Hua Hu Ching: Teachings of Lao Tzu
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“Reading, therefore, is a co-production between writer and reader. The simplicity of this tool is astounding. So little, yet out of it whole worlds, eras, characters, continents, people never encountered before, people you wouldn’t care to sit next to in a train, people that don’t exist, places you’ve never visited, enigmatic fates, all come to life in the mind, painted into existence by the reader’s creative powers. In this way the creativity of the writer calls up the creativity of the reader. Reading is never passive.”

PeopleWorldWayMindLittlesWholeCharacterCareReadingNextExistenceCreativityCreativeFateReaderToolsTrainSimplicityProductionsWhole WorldErasContinentsPassiveCreative PowerEnigmatic
Book:A Way of Being Free
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“Strolling on, it seems to me that the strangeness and wonder of existence are emphasized here, in the desert, by the comparative sparsity of the flora and fauna: life not crowded upon life as in other places but scattered abroad in spareness and simplicity, with a generous gift of space for each herb and bush and tree, each stem of grass, so that the living organism stands out bold and brave and vivid against the lifeless sand and barren rock. The extreme clarity of the desert light is equaled by the extreme individuation of desert life-forms. Love flowers best in openness and freedom.”

LightSeemsFormSpaceExistenceWonderTreeRocksFlowerBraveSimplicityExtremesClarityDesertGrassGenerousSandOpennessStemOrganismsStanding OutVividCrowdedHerbsBarrenStrollingStrangenessLifelessSense Of WonderIndividuationLiving OrganismsFloraFlora And FaunaFlower Love
Book:Desert Solitaire
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“Simplicity is always a virtue. One kid on a riverbank working out a Stephen Foster tune on his new harmonica heard from the correct esthetic distance projects more magic and power than the entire Vienna Philharmonic and Chorus laboring (once again) through the Mozart Requiem or Bach's B Minor Mass.”

KidsVirtueMagicHeardProjectsMassDistanceSimplicityWork OutTunesMinorsChorusViennaHarmonicasRequiem
Book:A Voice Crying in the Wilderness
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“A quote that I like very much comes close to explaining my attitude about taking photographs. ‘Chinese poetry rarely trespasses beyond the bounds of actuality the great Chinese poets accept the world exactly as they find it in all its terms and with profound simplicity they seldom talk about one thing in terms of another; but are able enough and sure enough as artists to make the ultimately exact terms become the beautiful terms.’”

WorldEnoughAbleBeautifulArtistTermAttitudeAcceptingOne ThingPoetProfoundBoundsPhotographSimplicityChineseExplainingMy AttitudeActuality
Author:Stephen Shore
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“Code wants to be simple... I had to give up the idea that I had the perfect vision of the system to which the system had to conform. Instead, I had to accept that I was only the vehicle for the system expressing its own desire for simplicity. My vision could shape initial direction, and my attention to the desires of the code could affect how quickly and how well the system found its desired shape, but the system is riding me much more than I am riding the system.”

WantGivingWellsIdeasDesireFoundSimplePerfectAttentionAcceptingVisionShapesGiving UpSimplicityCodeVehicleRidingConformInitials
Author:Kent Beck
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“All the world began with a yes. One molecule said yes to another molecule and life was born. But before prehistory there was the prehistory of the prehistory and there was the never and there was the yes. It was ever so. I don’t know why, but I do know that the universe never began. Make no mistake, I only achieve simplicity with enormous effort.”

KnowsWorldSaidUniverseBornEffortMistakeAchieveSimplicityEnormousMoleculesPrehistory
Author:Clarice Lispector
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