Occam's Razor Quotes

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  Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.

  Albert Einstein

  Inspirational, Funny, Witty

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• Nonbeing must in some sense be, otherwise what is it that there is not? This tangled doctrine might be nicknamed Plato's beard; historically it has proved tough, frequently dulling the edge of Occam's razor.

  Willard Van Orman Quine

  Plato, Tangled, Might

  Willard Van Orman Quine, Roger F. Gibson (2004). “Quintessence: Basic Readings from the Philosophy of W.V. Quine”, p.177, Harvard University Press

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• With all things being equal, the simplest explanation tends to be the right one.

  William of Ockham

  Occam's Razor, Equal, Explanation

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• The explanation requiring the fewest assumptions is most likely to be correct.

  William of Ockham

  Assumption, Occam's Razor, Explanation

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• We are to admit no more causes of natural things than such as are both true and sufficient to explain their appearances.

  Isaac Newton

  Science, Causes, Razors

  1687 Newton's First Rule of Reasoning in Philosophy. Philosophiae Naturalis PrincipiaMathematica (translated by Andrew Motte,1729).

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• Entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity.

  William of Ockham

  Occam's Razor, Entity

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• Of two equivalent theories or explanations, all other things being equal, the simpler one is to be preferred.

  William of Ockham

  Two, Decision, Occam's Razor

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• It is vain to do with more what can be done with less.

  William of Ockham

  Peace, Creativity, Simple

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• If a thing can be done adequately by means of one, it is superfluous to do it by means of several; for we observe that nature does not employ two instruments [if] one suffices.

  Thomas Aquinas

  Mean, Two, Done

  Thomas Aquinas, Anton C. Pegis (1997). “Basic Writings of St. Thomas Aquinas, Volume 2”, p.129, Hackett Publishing

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• Nature operates in the shortest way possible.

  Aristotle

  Way, Occam's Razor

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• Entities are not to be multiplied beyond necessity.

  William of Ockham

  Stupidity, Occam's Razor, Entity

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• For nothing ought to be posited without a reason given, unless it is self-evident (literally, known through itself) or known by experience or proved by the authority of Sacred Scripture.

  William of Ockham

  Self, Sacred Scripture, Reason

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• And this shows that sometimes people want to be stupid and they do not want to know the truth.

  Mark Haddon

  Stupid, People, Want

  Mark Haddon (2012). “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time: Vintage Children's Classics”, p.113, Random House

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• There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

  William Shakespeare

  Dream, Spiritual, Philosophy

  'Hamlet' (1601) act 1, sc. 5, l. 166

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• Therefore to the same natural effects we must, as far as possible, assign the same causes.

  Isaac Newton

  Science, Causes, Natural

  Sir Isaac Newton, N. W. Chittenden (1848). “Newton's Principia: The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy”, p.384

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• People don't want to know the truth.

  Katherine Jackson

  People, Want, Occam's Razor

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• Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem

  William of Ockham

  Atheism, Razors, Occam's Razor

  'Occams's Razor', an ancient philosophical principle often attributed to Occam but earlier in origin; not found in this form in his writings, though he frequently used similar expressions, e.g. Pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitate [Plurality should not be assumed unnecessarily] in 'Quodlibeta' (c.1324) no. 5, question 1, art. 2. J. C. Way (ed.) 'Opera Theologica' (1980) vol. 9, p. 476

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• While Occam's razor is a useful tool in the physical sciences, it can be a very dangerous implement in biology. It is thus very rash to use simplicity and elegance as a guide in biological research.

  Francis Crick

  Simplicity, Tools, Use

  "What Mad Pursuit". Book by Francis Crick, 1988.

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• So Occam's razor - Occam says you should choose the explanation that is most simple and straightforward - leads me more to believe in God than in the multiverse, which seems quite a stretch of the imagination.

  Richard Dawkins

  Believe, Simple, Imagination

  Source: inters.org

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• Were it not for Occam's Razor, which always demands simplicity, I'd be tempted to believe that human beings are more influenced by distant causes than immediate ones. This would especially be true of overeducated people, who are capable of thinking past the immediate, of becoming obsessed by the remote. It's the old stuff, the conflicts we've never come to terms with, that sneaks up on us, half forgotten, insisting upon action.

  Richard Russo

  Believe, Past, Thinking

  "Straight Man". Book by Richard Russo, 1997.

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• Occam's razor suggests that, if some event is physically plausible, we don't need recourse to more extraordinary claims for its being. Surely the requirement of an all-powerful deity who somehow exists outside of our universe, or multiverse, while at the same time governing what goes on inside it, is one such claim. It should thus be a claim of last, rather than first, resort.

  Lawrence M. Krauss

  Powerful, Events, Needs

  Lawrence M. Krauss (2012). “A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather than Nothing”, p.150, Simon and Schuster

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• 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.

  David Eagleman

  Past, Razors, Lines

  David Eagleman (2011). “Incognito: The Secret Lives of The Brain”, p.177, Canongate Books

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• And this shows that people want to be stupid and they do not want to know the truth. And it shows that something called Occam's razor is true. And Occam's razor is not a razor that men shave with but a Law, and it says: Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem. Which is Latin and it means: No more things should be presumed to exist than are absolutely necessary. Which means that a murder victim is usually killed by someone known to them and fairies are made out of paper and you can't talk to someone who is dead.

  Mark Haddon

  Latin, Stupid, Mean

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• Christian apologists who argue that a story about an empty tomb is convincing evidence of a resurrected body are likely unfamiliar with Occam’s razor, which states that among competing hypotheses, the hypothesis with the fewest assumptions should be selected. They assume that the most likely explanation is miraculous resurrection through some unproven divine connection, but more likely scenarios include a stolen body, a mismarked grave, a planned removal, faulty reports, creative storytelling, edited scriptures, etc. No magic required.

  David G. McAfee

  Christian, Convincing Evidence, Creative

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