When you see a rattlesnake poised to strike you, do not wait until he has struck before you crush him.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) American Head of State, Lawyer
It is far more difficult to be simple than to be complicated; far more difficult to sacrifice skill and easy execution in the proper place, than to expand both indiscriminately.
—John Ruskin (1819–1900) English Writer, Art Critic
Simplicity is nature’s first step, and the last of art.
—Philip James Bailey (1816–1902) English Poet
Manifest plainness, embrace simplicity, reduce selfishness, have few desires.
—Laozi (fl.6th Century BCE) Chinese Philosopher, Sage
A noble brother, whose nature is so far from doing harms, that he suspects none.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
When you are at sea, keep clear of the land.
—Publilius Syrus (fl.85–43 BCE) Syrian-born Roman Latin Writer
If you walk, just walk. If you sit, just sit. But whatever you do, don’t wobble.
—Unknown
He is of a free and open nature that thinks all men honest who but seem to be so, and will as tenderly be led by the nose as asses are.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way.
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American Author, Journalist, Short Story Writer
Creativity is more than just being different. Anybody can play weird—that’s easy. What’s hard is to be as simple as Bach. Making the simple complicated is commonplace—making the complicated simple, awesomely simple—that’s creativity.
—Charles Mingus (1922–79) American Jazz Bassist, Composer
There is repetition everywhere, and nothing is found only once in the world.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Still we live meanly, like ants; though the fable tells us that we were long ago changed into men; like pygmies we fight with cranes; it is error upon error, and clout upon clout, and our best virtue has for its occasion a superfluous and evitable wretchedness. Our life is frittered away by detail. An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers, or in extreme cases he may add his ten toes, and lump the rest. Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb-nail. In the midst of this chopping sea of civilized life, such are the clouds and storms and quicksands and thousand-and-one items to be allowed for, that a man has to live, if he would not founder and go to the bottom and not make his port at all, by dead reckoning, and he must be a great calculator indeed who succeeds. Simplify, simplify. Instead of three meals a day, if it be necessary eat but one; instead of a hundred dishes, five; and reduce other things in proportion.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
For men in a state of freedom had thatch for their shelter, while slavery dwells beneath marble and gold.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
The guiding motto in the life of every natural philosopher should be, Seek simplicity and distrust it
—Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) English Mathematician, Philosopher
To want simply what is enough nowadays suggests to people primitiveness and squalor.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
True eloquence consists in saying all that should be said, and that only.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
When a man is made up wholly of the dove, without the least grain of the serpent in his composition, he becomes ridiculous in many circumstances of life, and very often discredits his best actions.
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English Essayist, Poet, Playwright, Politician
Upright simplicity is the deepest wisdom, and perverse craft the merest shallowness.
—Isaac Barrow
The first law of war is to preserve ourselves and destroy the enemy.
—Mao Zedong (1893–1976) Chinese Statesman
There is only one meaning of life, the act of living itself.
—Erich Fromm (1900–80) German-American Psychoanalyst, Social Philosopher
From naive simplicity we arrive at more profound simplicity.
—Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) French Theologian, Musician, Philosopher, Physician
Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you’ve imagined! As you simplify your life, the laws of the Universe will be simpler, solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
There is a point at which everything becomes simple and there is no longer any question of choice, because all you have staked will be lost if you look back. Life’s point of no return.
—Dag Hammarskjold (1905–61) Swedish Statesman, UN Diplomat
If you want to be found, stand where the seeker seeks.
—Sidney Lanier (1842–81) American Poet
I hate American simplicity. I glory in the piling up of complications of every sort. If I could pronounce the name James in any different or more elaborate way I should be in favor of doing it.
—Henry James (1843–1916) American-born British Novelist, Writer
The object of war is to survive it.
—John Irving (b.1942) American Novelist, Short-story Writer
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
—Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American Head of State, Political leader, Historian, Explorer
Beauty of style and harmony and grace and good rhythm depend on simplicity.
—Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
Simplicity, of all things, is the hardest to be copied.
—Richard Steele (1672–1729) Irish Writer, Politician