Complexity Quotes

• Out of intense complexities, intense simplicities emerge

  Winston Churchill

  Inspirational, Simplicity, Intense

  Winston Churchill (2005). “The World Crisis, 1911-1918”, p.623, Simon and Schuster

  49 Copy quote

  Show source

• Nothing is perfect. Life is messy. Relationships are complex. Outcomes are uncertain. People are irrational.

  Hugh Mackay

  Relationship, Perfect, Dating

  72 Copy quote
• 

  The theory of evolution by cumulative natural selection is the only theory we know of that is in principle capable of explaining the existence of organized complexity.

  Richard Dawkins

  Health, Theory Of Evolution, Inspire

  Richard Dawkins (2015). “The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe without Design”, p.300, W. W. Norton & Company

  86 Copy quote

  Show source

• I think the next century will be the century of complexity.

  Stephen Hawking

  Thinking, Next, Century

  9 Copy quote

• Fools ignore complexity. Pragmatists suffer it. Some can avoid it. Geniuses remove it.

  Alan Perlis

  Life And Love, Suffering, Genius

  "Epigrams on Programming". ACM SIGPLAN Notices 17 (9), pp. 7-13, pu.inf.uni-tuebingen.de. September 1982.

  43 Copy quote

  Show source

• Complexity is your enemy. Any fool can make something complicated. It is hard to keep things simple.

  Richard Branson

  Simple, Entrepreneur, Challenges

  "What Richard Branson Told Me About Goal-Getting (And Creating a Life You Adore)" by Robin Sharma, www.huffingtonpost.com. May 15, 2013.

  65 Copy quote

  Show source

• The complexity of things - the things within things - just seems to be endless. I mean nothing is easy, nothing is simple.

  Alice Munro

  Mean, Simple, Chaos

  FaceBook post by Alice Munro from Jul 07, 2011

  57 Copy quote

  Show source

• Abandon the urge to simplify everything, to look for formulas and easy answers, and to begin to think multidimensionally, to glory in the mystery and paradoxes of life, not to be dismayed by the multitude of causes and consequences that are inherent in each experience -- to appreciate the fact that life is complex.

  M. Scott Peck

  Life, Appreciation, Thinking

  M. Scott Peck (1998). “Further Along the Road Less Traveled: The Unending Journey Towards Spiritual Growth”, p.14, Simon and Schuster

  29 Copy quote

  Show source

• There is a new science of complexity which says that the link between cause and effect is increasingly difficult to trace; that change (planned or otherwise) unfolds in non-linear ways; that paradoxes and contradictions abound; and that creative solutions arise out of diversity, uncertainty and chaos.

  Andy Hargreaves

  Creativity, Science, Diversity

  7 Copy quote

• It is not possible to refer a complex difficulty to a single cause.

  Helen Keller

  Causes, Difficulty, Complexes

  Helen Keller (2003). “The Story of My Life: The Restored Edition”, p.468, Modern Library

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• That's been one of my mantras - focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.

  Steve Jobs

  Change, Inspiring, Life Changing

  "The 13 Most Memorable Quotes From Steve Jobs" by Dylan Love, www.businessinsider.com. October 5, 2011.

  117 Copy quote

  Show source

• Technical skill is mastery of complexity, while creativity is mastery of simplicity.

  Christopher Zeeman

  Truth, Creativity, Knowledge

  54 Copy quote

• Don't let complexity stop you.

  Bill Gates

  Bill Gates' Commencement Address at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, news.harvard.edu. June 7, 2007.

  24 Copy quote

  Show source

• Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.

  Alan Perlis

  Simplicity, Simple Life, Doe

  "Epigrams on Programming". ACM SIGPLAN Notices 17 (9), pp. 7-13, pu.inf.uni-tuebingen.de. September 1982.

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.

  Confucius

  Inspirational, Life, Positive

  191 Copy quote

• We live in a rainbow of chaos.

  Paul Cezanne

  Love, Dream, Rainbow

  38 Copy quote

• Suddenly it was clear to me that all the beautiful complexity of life had simplicity at its core.

  Eric Lander

  Beautiful, Simplicity, Clear

  8 Copy quote

• The more complex the network is, the more complex its pattern of interconnections, the more resilient it will be.

  Fritjof Capra

  Ecosystems, Resilience, Networking

  Fritjof Capra (1996). “The Web of Life: A New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems”, Doubleday

  65 Copy quote

  Show source

• If I do not understand myself, the whole complexity of myself, I have no basis for thinking.

  Jiddu Krishnamurti

  Thinking, Bases, Whole

  Jiddu Krishnamurti (2017). “Relationships: To Oneself, To Others,To the World”, p.67, Krishnamurti Foundation America via PublishDrive

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Failing to grapple with complexity actually turns out to be a pretty bad life strategy.

  John Green

  Failing, Strategy, Bad Life

  4 Copy quote

• We can either change the complexities of life ... or develop ways that enable us to cope more effectively.

  Herbert Benson

  Events, Way

  Herbert Benson (1976). “The Relaxation Response”, G K Hall & Company

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• The complexities of life situations are really not as complicated as we tend to experience them.

  Chogyam Trungpa

  Life, Complicated, Situation

  Chogyam Trungpa (2010). “The Collected Works of Chogyam Trungpa: Volume Four: Journey without Goal; The Lion's Roar; The Dawn of Tantra; An Interview with Cho gyam Trungpa”, p.415, Shambhala Publications

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• Complexity is one of the great problems in environmental design.

  Christopher Alexander

  Design, Environmental, Problem

  22 Copy quote

• It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.

  Albert Einstein

  Courage, Moving, Simple

  "Small is Beautiful". The Radical Humanist, Vol. 37, No. 5, (p. 22), August 1973.

  103 Copy quote

  Show source

• Our role as humans is to recognize the complexity of others.

  John Green

  Roles, Humans

  10 Copy quote