Simplicity Quotes - Page 9

• Since all the riches of this world
  May be gifts from the Devil and earthly kings,
  I should suspect that I worshipp'd the Devil
  If I thank'd my God for worldly things.

  William Blake

  Kings, Devil, World

  William Blake (2000). “The Selected Poems of William Blake”, p.154, Wordsworth Editions

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• Complexity and intelligence grow from simplicity, not from greater complexity.

  Brian Eno

  Complexity, Grows, Greater

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• Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!

  Henry David Thoreau

  Henry David Thoreau (2006). “Thoreau and the Art of Life: Precepts and Principles”, p.74, Heron Dance Press

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• Joy comes not through possession or ownership but through a wise and loving heart.

  Gautama Buddha

  Love, Happiness, Happy

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• Simplicity is the most deceitful mistress that ever betrayed man.

  Henry Adams

  Men, Hype, Mistress

  Henry Adams (2015). “The Education of Henry Adams”, p.432, Booklassic

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• Simplicity is not the absence of clutter, that's a consequence of simplicity. Simplicity is somehow essentially describing the purpose and place of an object and product. The absence of clutter is just a clutter-free product. That's not simple.

  Jonathan Ive

  Philosophical, Simple, Purpose

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• The simplification of life is one of the steps to inner peace. A persistent simplification will create an inner and outer well-being that places harmony in one's life.

  Peace Pilgrim

  Inspirational, Life, Being Sad

  Peace Pilgrim (1992). “Peace Pilgrim: Her Life and Work in Her Own Words”, p.51, Friends of Peace PIlgrim

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• With a few flowers in my garden, half a dozen pictures and some books, I live without envy.

  Lope de Vega

  Life, Flower, Book

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• Human subtlety will never devise an invention more beautiful, more simple or more direct than does nature because in her inventions nothing is lacking, and nothing is superfluous.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Beauty, Beautiful, Nature

  Leonardo Da Vinci (1938). “The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci”

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• Simplicity, clarity, singleness: These are the attributes that give our lives power and vividness and joy as they are also the marks of great art. They seem to be the purpose of God for his whole creation.

  Richard Holloway

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Art

  "God's Priorities for Your Life for Teens". 2006.

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• Simplicity is the intention, purity in the affection; simplicity turns to God, purity unites with and enjoys him.

  Thomas a Kempis

  God, Affection, Purity

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• As beautiful as simplicity is, it can become a tradition that stands in the way of exploration.

  Laura Nyro

  Beautiful, Way, Tradition

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• A truly great man never puts away the simplicity of a child.

  Confucius

  Children, Father, Men

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• Simplicity is a pleasant thing in children, or at any age, but it is not necessarily admirable, nor is affectation altogether a thing of evil. To be normal, to be at home in the world, with a prospect of power, usefulness, or success, the person must have that imaginative insight into other minds that underlies tact and savoir-faire, morality and beneficence. This insight involves sophistication, some understanding and sharing of the clandestine impulses of human nature. A simplicity that is merely the lack of this insight indicates a sort of defect.

  Charles Horton Cooley

  Nature, Children, Home

  Charles Horton Cooley (1909). “Two Major Works: Social Organization. Human Nature and the Social Order”, Glencoe, Ill., Free P

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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.

  Andre Comte-Sponville

  Simple, Thinking, Rose

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• As I grew older, I realized that it was much better to insist on the genuine forms of nature, for simplicity is the greatest adornment of art.

  Albrecht Durer

  Art, Form, Genuine

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• Grandeur and beauty are so very opposite, that you often diminish the one as you increase the other. Variety is most akin to the latter, simplicity to the former.

  William Shenstone

  Beauty, Opposites, Increase

  William Shenstone (1868). “Essays on men and manners”, p.150

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• Upright simplicity is the deepest wisdom, and perverse craft the merest shallowness.

  Isaac Barrow

  Crafts, Shallowness

  Isaac Barrow (1849). “Eighteen Sermons on Various Subjects”, p.38

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• Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.

  Epictetus

  Positive, Uplifting, Money

  Epictetus (2016). “The Philosophy of Epictetus: Golden Sayings and Fragments”, p.87, Courier Dover Publications

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• If thou hadst simplicity and purity, thou wouldst be able to comprehend all things without error, and behold them without danger. The pure heart safely pervades not only heaven, but hell.

  Thomas a Kempis

  Heart, Errors, Heaven

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• The simple-hearted and sincere never do more than half deceive themselves.

  Joseph Joubert

  Simple, Half, Deceiving

  Joseph Joubert (1896). “Pensées of Joubert”

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• There are thousands upon thousands of students who have practiced meditation and obtained its fruits. Do not doubt its possibilities because of the simplicity of the method. If you can not find the truth right where you are, where else do you expect to find it?

  Dogen

  Truth, Meditation, Doubt

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• The true friend of truth and good loves them under all forms, but he loves them most under the most simple form.

  Johann Kaspar Lavater

  True Friend, Good Love, Simple

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• The beauty of Zen is found in simplicity and tranquility, in a sense of the all-embracing harmony of things.

  Thich Thien-An

  Beauty, Tranquility, Harmony

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• Reduce the complexity of life by eliminating the needless wants of life, and the labors of life reduce themselves.

  Edwin Way Teale

  Life, Simple, Greed

  Edwin Way Teale (1953). “Circle of the Seasons: The Journal of a Naturalist's Year”

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