Quotes
58 Essential Quotes That Show 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, and 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.
Think about how many times you’ve unnecessarily complicated things in life when it could’ve been very simple. I’d be willing to be it’s happens more often than not, right? Sometimes we need some help shifting our perspective on life and remember how the best things in life tend to be the simplest.
Here are 58 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
42. “The less I needed, the better I felt.” – Charles Bukowski
43. “Less stuff equals more freedom.” – Maxime Lagacé
44. “Simplicity boils down to two steps: Identify the essential. Eliminate the rest.” – Leo Babauta
45. “ If buying stuff hasn’t made you happy, maybe getting rid of it will.” – Joshua Becker
46. “He who is contented is rich.” – Lao Tzu
47. “Make room for things that matter by removing everything that doesn’t. Brian Gardner
48. “Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.” – Alan Perlis
49. “Clutter and confusion are failures of design, not attributes of information.” – Edward Tuft
50. “Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.” ― E.F. Schumacher
51. “The main purpose of science is simplicity and as we understand more things, everything is becoming simpler.” – Edward Teller
52. “The simplest things are often the truest.” – Richard Bach
53.“A vocabulary of truth and simplicity will be of service throughout your life.” – Winston Churchill
54. “Nature is pleased with simplicity. And nature is no dummy” ― Isaac Newton
55.“There is no greatness where there is not simplicity, goodness, and truth.” ― Leo Tolstoy
56. “Simplicity is the glory of expression.” – Walt Whitman
57. “Beauty of style and harmony and grace and good rhythm depend on simplicity.” – Plato
58. “The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.” – Hans Hofmann
To achieve simplicity we need to have a simplicity first attitude. Simplicity is not easy, but it is achievable, and it makes everything easier.