Simplicity Quotes - Page 37

• How can one liberate the many? By first liberating his own being. He does this not by elevating himself, but by lowering himself. He lowers himself to that which is simple, modest, true; integrating it into himself, he becomes a master of simplicity, modesty, truth.

  Laozi

  Simple, Doe, Firsts

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• The wisest man could ask no more of fate Than to be simple, modest, manly, true, Safe from the many, honored by the few; Nothing to court in Church, or World, or State, But inwardly in secret to be great.

  James Russell Lowell

  Fate, Simple, Men

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• Singleness, simplicity, is required of me. One treasure, a single eye, and a sole Master!

  Jim Elliot

  Eye, Denial, Treasure

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• This duo inside of me causes the perfect opportunity to live and learn twice as fast as those who choose to accept simplicity.

  Tupac Shakur

  Thug, Opportunity, Perfect

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• It is our fall from a simplicity and fullness of life directly experienced, from the sensuous moment of knowing, which leaves a gap that the symbolic can never bridge.

  John Zerzan

  Fall, Fullness Of Life, Bridges

  John Zerzan (2002). “Running on Emptiness: The Pathology of Civilisation”

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• Growth creates complexity, which requires simplicity.

  Mike Krzyzewski

  Growth, Complexity

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• Simplicity is not a goal, but one arrives at simplicity in spite of oneself, as one approaches the real meaning of things.

  Herbert Read

  Real, Goal, Spite

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• A recurring ideal, I find, is that of simplicity. At times there comes the desire to write with great precision and clarity, words so simple and moving that they bring tears to the eyes.

  R. S. Thomas

  Moving, Writing, Eye

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• Let your mind wander in simplicity, blend your spirit with the vastness, follow along with things the way they are, and make no room for personal views-then the world will be governed.

  Zhuangzi

  Views, Mind, World

  Zhuangzi, Burton Watson, Columbia College (Columbia University) (1968). “The Complete Works of Chuang Tzu”, p.94, Columbia University Press

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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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• For want of self-restraint many men are engaged all their lives in fighting with difficulties of their own making, and rendering success impossible by their own cross-grained ungentleness; whilst others, it may be much less gifted, make their way and achieve success by simple patience, equanimity, and self-control.

  Samuel Smiles

  Life, Success, Fighting

  Samuel Smiles (1910). “Character. Repr”

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• Life-complication Theory: Given a choice between an easy solution and a complicated one, the loser will usually opt to travel the complicated path. Don't ignore a solution just because it's simple!

  Robert Ringer

  Life, Simple, Justice

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• The ideas behind the words are simple ones that work in everyday life; find what we most want to do; do it, no matter what; and in the doing be guaranteed a very difficult and a very happy lifetime.

  Richard Bach

  Life, Simple, Ideas

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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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• A simple rule, to be followed whether one is in the light or not, gives backbone to one's spiritual life, as nothing else can.

  Evelyn Underhill

  Life, Spiritual, Simple

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• I am alone; all drowns in the Pharisees' hypocrisy. To live your life is not as simple as to cross a field.

  Boris Pasternak

  Life, Simple, Hypocrisy

  Doctor Zhivago "Zhivago's Poems: Hamlet" (1958) (translation by Max Hayward and Manya Harari)

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• Let the seeking man reach a place where life and lips join to say continually, "Be thou exalted," and a thousand minor problems will be solved at once.

  Aiden Wilson Tozer

  Life, Christian, Men

  "The Pursuit of God". Book by Aiden Wilson Tozer, 1957.

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• And simple truth miscalled simplicity

  William Shakespeare

  Learning, Simple, Programming

  Sonnet 66

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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

  Design, Important, Ambitious

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• Simplicity and elegance are unpopular because they require hard work and discipline to achieve and education to be appreciated.

  Edsger Dijkstra

  Hard Work, Discipline, Design

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• And as this is the obvious appearance of things, it must be admitted, till some hypothesis be discovered, which by penetrating deeper into human nature, may prove the former affections to be nothing but modifications of the latter. All attempts of this kind have hitherto proved fruitless, and seem to have proceeded entirely from that love of simplicity which has been the source of much false reasoning in philosophy.

  David Hume

  Philosophy, Words Of Wisdom, May

  David Hume (1758). “Essays and Treatises on Several Subjects”, p.402

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• And oft, though wisdom wake, suspicion sleeps At wisdom's gate, and to simplicity Resigns her charge, while goodness thinks no ill Where no ill seems.

  John Milton

  Wisdom, Sleep, Thinking

  John Milton, Henry John Todd (1826). “The poetical works of John Milton: With notes of various authors”, p.261

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• Simplicity is not about making something without ornament, but rather about making something very complex, then slicing elements away, until you reveal the very essence.

  Christoph Niemann

  Essence, Design, Ornaments

  "The Story of My App" by Christoph Niemann, www.newyorker.com. March 18, 2013.

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• A creature not too bright or good For human nature's daily food; For transient sorrows, simple wiles, Praise, blame, love, kisses, tears, and smiles.

  William Wordsworth

  Kissing, Simple, Cooking

  'She was a phantom of delight' (1807)

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• Love is lost in immensities; it comes in simple, gentle ways.

  Joseph Fort Newton

  Love, Simple, Way

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