41 Essential Quotes That Shows The Beauty Of Simplicity
Success is dependent upon simplicity, the simpler we can make things the more successful we will be. It’s as simple as that! Simplicity aids understanding, it allows us to focus better, it increases belief and builds confidence.
The value of simplicity has been known for centuries, its importance has been understood by the best and the brightest throughout history. Yet we somehow still have a natural tendency to over complicate things.
Here are 41 quotes on simplicity to remind you of the importance and beauty of being simple:
1. “Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” – Confucius
2. “In character, in manner, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity.” – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
3. “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” – Leonardo da Vinci
4. “The most complicated skill is to be simple.” – Dejan Stojanovic
5. “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
6. “Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.” – Isaac Newton
7. “It is always the simple that produces the marvelous.” – Amelia Barr
8. “Simplicity is a prerequisite for reliability.” – Edsger Dijkstra
9. “I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures.” – Lao Tzu
10. “Simplicity is the most difficult thing to secure in this world; it is the last limit of experience and the last effort of genius.” – George Sand
11. “Simplicity is an exact medium between too little and too much.” – Sir Joshua Reynolds
12. “Order and simplification are the first steps toward the mastery of a subject.” – Thomas Mann
13. “Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.” – Lin Yutang
14. “The art of simplicity is a puzzle of complexity.” – Douglas Horton
15. “Simplicity is the outcome of technical subtlety. It is the goal, not the starting point.” – Maurice Saatchi
16. “Simplicity is a state of mind.” – Charles Wagner
17. “Understanding reduces the greatest to simplicity, and lack of it causes the least to take on the magnitude.” – Raymond Holliwell
19. “If you can’t explain it to a six year old, you don’t understand it yourself.” – Albert Einstein
20. “The greatest ideas are the simplest.” – William Golding
21. “Nothing is more simple than greatness; indeed, to be simple is to be great.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
22. “Almost all quality improvement comes via simplification of design, manufacturing, layout, processes, and procedures.” – Tom Peters
23. “Very often, people confuse simple with simplistic. The nuance is lost on most.” – Clement Mok
24. “Knowledge is a process of piling up facts; wisdom lies in their simplification.” – Martin H. Fischer
25. “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler “ – Albert Einstein
26. “People often associate complexity with deeper meaning, when often after precious time has been lost, it is realized that simplicity is the key to everything.” – Gary Hopkins
27. Growth creates complexity, which requires simplicity.” – Andy Stanley
29. “Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify.” – Henry David Thoreau
30. “It is not a daily increase, but a daily decrease. Hack away at the inessentials.” – Bruce Lee
31. “Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious and adding the meaningful.” – John Maeda
32. “Things are never as complicated as they seem. It is only our arrogance that prompts us to find unnecessarily complicated answers to simple problems.” – Muhammad Yunus
33. “The role of genius is not to complicate the simple, but to simplify the complicated.” – Criss Jami
34. “Complexity is impressive, but simplicity is genius.” – Lance Wallnau
35. “Complexity is enemy of execution”. – Anthony Robbins
36. “Fools ignore complexity. Pragmatists suffer it. Come can avoid it. Geniuses remove it.” – Alan Perlis
37. “Simplicity will stand out, while complexity will get lost in the crowd.” – Kevin Barnett
38. “Out of intense complexities intense simplicities emerge.” – Winston Churchill
39. “The evolution of knowledge is toward simplicity, not complexity.” – L. Ron Hubbard
40. “The simplification of life is one of the steps to inner peace.” – Mildred Norman
41. “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
To achieve simplicity we need to have a simplicity first attitude. Simplicity is not easy, but it is achievable, and it makes everything easier.
The beauty of simplicity is so undermined. Thanks Gordon for bringing up how important simplicity is.
You sum it up so well here: “Simplicity aids understanding, it allows us to focus better, it increases belief and builds confidence.”
My favorite simplicity quotes in the list are those:
6. “Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.” – Isaac Newton
23. “Very often, people confuse simple with simplistic. The nuance is lost on most.” – Clement Mok
25. “Everything should be made as simpl as possible, but not simpler “ – Albert Einstein
Gordon thanks for taking the time to put these quotes together for all of us. Number 19 is my favorite as I find that too often these days, people want to complicate things that they don’t understand themselves. The reasons around this are quite broad bur none the less, simplicity is key.
Great quotes. Thanks for sharing.