Complexity Quotes - Page 14

• To be a student required a peculiar kind of capitulation, a willingness not simply to do as one is told, but to surrendor the movements of one's soul to the unknown complexities of another's. A willingness, not simply to be moved, but to be remade.

  R. Scott Bakker

  Soul, Peculiar, Movement

  R. Scott Bakker (2010). “The Judging Eye: One (The Aspect-Emperor Trilogy)”, p.257, The Overlook Press

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• Major Trends [is] the canonical modern work on the nature and history of Jewish mysticism. For a sophisticated understanding, not only of the dynamics of Jewish mysticism, but of the exquisite complexities of Jewish history and tradition, Major Trends is a major port of entry through which one must pass.

  Yosef Hayim Yerushalmi

  Understanding, Trends, Dynamics

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• Probe the universe in a myriad of points. ... He is a wise man who has taken many views; to whom stones and plants and animals and a myriad of objects have each suggesting something, contributed something.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Wise, Taken, Animal

  Henry David Thoreau, David Gross (2007). “The Price of Freedom: Political Philosophy from Thoreau's Journals”, p.5, David M Gross

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• We humans are a complex interwoven system of the body, the mind, and the spirit. We are formed and informed by the interplay of these systems. Our health care, to be truly effective, must acknowledge and address this complexity and interconnectedness – and also the effect we have on each other.

  Ann Scott

  Mind, Body, Care

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• In the midst of the complexities of modern life, with all its pressures, the spirit of man needs to refresh itself by communion with unspoiled nature. In such surroundings- occasional as our visits may be- we can achieve that kind of physical and spiritual renewal that comes alone from the wonder of the natural world.

  Laurance Rockefeller

  Spiritual, Men, Needs

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• I'm trying to set out the passion and complexity of this sport. Many people think it's a dumb activity: stand on the gas and turn left. In fact, it's probably one of the most complex sports in existence.

  Janet Guthrie

  Sports, Passion, Thinking

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• Customers want new functionality, but they don't want the traditional complexity that has marred products in the past.

  Marc Benioff

  Past, Want, Traditional

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• Contrary to what most people say and believe, the simplicity is a great thing, i actually believe in - complexity is a fantastic thing and complex things should be approached in a complex way.

  Tarun J. Tejpal

  Believe, People, Simplicity

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• The capacity to tolerate complexity and welcome contradiction, not the need for simplicity and certainty, is the attribute of an explorer. Centuries ago, when some people suspended their search for absolute truth and began instead to ask how things worked, modern science was born. Curiously, it was by abandoning the search for absolute truth that science began to make progress, opening the material universe to human exploration.

  Heinz Pagels

  People, Simplicity, Progress

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• To offer the complexities of life as an excuse for not addressing oneself to the simpler, more manageable (trivial) aspects of daily existence is a perversity often indulged in by artists, husbands, intellectuals -- and critics of the Women's Movement.

  Barbara Grizzuti Harrison

  Husband, Artist, Movement

  Barbara Grizzuti Harrison (1974). “Unlearning the lie: sexism in school”, William Morrow & Company

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• What distinguishes [Afropolitans] is a willingness to complicate Africa – namely, to engage with, critique, and celebrate the parts of Africa that mean most to them. Perhaps what most typifies the Afropolitan consciousness is the refusal to oversimplify; the effort to understand what is ailing in Africa alongside the desire to honour what is wonderful, unique. Rather than essentialising the geographical entity, we seek to comprehend the cultural complexity; to honour the intellectual and spiritual legacy; and to sustain our parents’ cultures.

  Taiye Selasi

  Spiritual, Mean, Unique

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• The motto of science is not just Pauca but rather Plurima ex paucissimis - the most out of the least.

  Mario Bunge

  Justice, Chaos, Motto

  "The Myth of Simplicity: Problems of Scientific Philosophy". Book by Mario Bunge, 1963.

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• The human mind can appreciate the One only by seeing it first in the Many.

  Joseph Wood Krutch

  Appreciate, Mind, Firsts

  Joseph Wood Krutch (2010). “The Desert Year”, p.268, University of Iowa Press

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• Each portion of matter may be conceived of as a garden full of plants, and as a pond full of fishes. But each branch of the plant, each member of the animal, each drop of its humors, is also such a garden or such a pond.

  Gottfried Leibniz

  Animal, Garden, Ponds

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• Every explicit duality is an implicit unity.

  Alan Watts

  Unity, Chaos, Duality

  Alan Watts (2017). “Psychotherapy East & West”, p.126, New World Library

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• For the user, it doesn't matter whether he is getting access on Wi-Fi, 3G or 2G networks. What matters is good connectivity, and as a technology provider, our job is to hide the complexity of the technology.

  Padmasree Warrior

  Jobs, Technology, What Matters

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• Doing a straight-forward, clear-cut task that has a beginning and an end balances out the complexity-without-end that often vexes the rest of my life. Sacred simplicity.

  Robert Fulghum

  Life, Work, Cutting

  Robert Fulghum (2004). “All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten: Uncommon Thoughts on Common Things”, p.57, Ballantine Books

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• Pessimism is a very easy way out because it is a short view of life. If you look at what is happening around us today, you can't help but feel that life is a terrible complexity of problems. But if you look back a few thousand years, you realize that we have advanced fantastically. If you take a long view, I do not see how you can be pessimistic about the future of mankind.

  Robertson Davies

  Life, Future, Views

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• Of all created things the source is one, Simple, single as love; remember The cell and seed of life, the sphere That is, of child, white bird, and small blue dragon-fly Green fern, and the gold four-petalled tormentilla The ultimate memory. Each latent cell puts out a future, Unfolds its differing complexity As a tree puts forth leaves, and spins a fate Fern-traced, bird feathered, or fish-scaled.

  Kathleen Raine

  Life, Memories, Children

  Kathleen Raine (1989). “Selected Poems”, p.55, SteinerBooks

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• Beauty is more important in computing than anywhere else in technology because software is so complicated. Beauty is the ultimate defense against complexity. ... The geniuses of the computer field, on the the other hand, are the people with the keenest aesthetic senses, the ones who are capable of creating beauty. Beauty is decisive at every level: the most important interfaces, the most important programming languages, the winning algorithms are the beautiful ones.

  David Gelernter

  Beautiful, Learning, Winning

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• There is a race between the increasing complexity of the systems we build and our ability to develop intellectual tools for understanding their complexity. If the race is won by our tools, then systems will eventually become easier to use and more reliable. If not, they will continue to become harder to use and less reliable for all but a relatively small set of common tasks. Given how hard thinking is, if those intellectual tools are to succeed, they will have to substitute calculation for thought.

  Leslie Lamport

  Learning, Thinking, Race

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• To understand the whole it is necessary to understand the parts. To understand the parts, it is necessary to understand the whole. Such is the circle of understanding.

  Ken Wilber

  Circles, Understanding, Chaos

  Ken Wilber (2004). “The Simple Feeling of Being: Visionary, Spiritual, and Poetic Writings”, p.200, Shambhala Publications

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• The general problem with ambitious systems is complexity. [...] it is important to emphasize the value of simplicity and elegance, for complexity has a way of compounding difficulties.

  Fernando J. Corbato

  Simplicity, Design, Important

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• Sometimes idiosyncrasies which used to be irritating become endearing, part of the complexity of a partner who has become woven deep into our own selves.

  Madeleine L'Engle

  Marriage, Self, Woven

  Madeleine L'Engle (2016). “Two-Part Invention: The Story of a Marriage”, p.57, Open Road Media

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• We are focused on features, not products. We eliminated future products that would have made the complexity problem worse. We don't want to have 20 different products that work in 20 different ways. I was getting lost at our site keeping track of everything. I would rather have a smaller set of products that have a shared set of features.

  Sergey Brin

  Success, Business, Track

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