Keeping it Simple
Jimmy Jones
--Jimmy
Frank Lynch
wrote:
>Any quotes on keeping life simple, or living a simple life. Thanks.
>
>--Jimmy
And they'rrrrrrrre OFF. 17 aq'rs madly thumb through their worn
copies of Walden all at once...
Frank Lynch
The Samuel Johnson Sound Bite Page is at:
http://www.samueljohnson.com/
Erica
> >--Jimmy
> And they'rrrrrrrre OFF. 17 aq'rs madly thumb through their worn
> copies of Walden all at once...
I DON'T KNOW WHY EVERYBODY HAS TO TALK ABOUT EVERYTHING ALL THE TIME
~From "On Golden Pond" ( 1981)
Erica
_____________________________
David C Kifer
>
> Any quotes on keeping life simple, or living a simple life. Thanks.
>
> --Jimmy
Life was simple before World War II. After that, we had systems.
--Grace Hopper
When the solution is simple, God is answering.
--Albert Einstein
Explanations exist; they have existed for all times, for there is always
an easy solution to every human problem -- neat, plausible, and wrong.
-- Henry Louis Mencken, "The Divine Afflatus," _New York
Evening Mail_, November 15, 1917; _Prejudices: Second Series_, 1920
--
Dave
"Tam multi libri, tam breve tempus!"
(Et brevis pecunia.) [Et breve spatium.]
Grace McGarvie
SIMPLE
Less is more. Robert Browning
All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single
word: freedom; justice; honor; duty; mercy; hope. Winston Churchill
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. Leonardo Da Vinci
If you want to win a case, paint the Judge a picture and keep it simple.
John W. Davis
Everything should be make a simple as possible, but not simpler. Albert Einstein
Out of clutter, find simplicity. From discord, find harmony. In the
middle of difficulty lies opportunity Albert Einstein
Great simplicity is only won by an intense moment or by years of
intelligent efforts or both. It represents one of the most arduous
conquests of the human spirit - the triumph of feeling and thought over
the natural sins of language. T. S. Eliot
Nothing is more simple than greatness; indeed, to be simple is to be
great. Ralph Waldo Emerson
The greatest results in life are usually attained by simple means and
the exercise of ordinary qualities. These may for the most part be
summed up in these two - common sense and perseverance. Owen Feltham
If you took all the books in print on "simplicity" and placed them end
to end, they'd probably reach Pluto. But you can pare it down to five
simple words: "Get rid of clutter." Angela Genusa
The whole is simpler than the sum of its parts. Willard Gibbs
What is hardest of all? That which seems most simple: to see with your
eyes what is before your eyes. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Everything is simpler than you think and at the same time more complex
than you imagine. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The greatest truths are the simplest. A. W. Hare
There are two ways of constructing a software design. One way is to make
it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies. And the other way
is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. C.
A. R. Hoare
The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the
necessary may speak. Hans Hoffman
Teach us delight in simple things, and mirth that has no bitter springs.
Rudyard Kipling
Manifest plainness, Embrace simplicity, Reduce selfishness, Have few
desires. Lao-Tzu
It's so simple to be wise. Just think of something stupid to say and say
the opposite. Sam Levenson
Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated
simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity. Charles Mingus
Nothing is ever as simple as it seems Edward A. Murphy, Jr.
Then anyone who leaves behind him a written manual, and likewise anyone
who receives it, in the belief that such writing will be clear and
certain, must be exceedingly simple-minded. Plato
A doctrine capable of being stated only in obscure and involved terms is
open to reasonable suspicion of being either crude or erroneous.
Frederick Pollock
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
Great floods have flown From simple sources. William Shakespeare, All's
Well That Ends Well
Our life is frittered away by detail . . . Simplify, simplify. Henry
David Thoreau
A cynic might suggest as the motto of modern life this simple legend -
'Just as good as the real.' Charles Dudley Warner
Simplicity is making the journey of this life with just baggage enough.
Charles Dudley Warner
The reason that revelation is always made to the simple is that the wise
could not be imposed upon. Lemuel K. Washburn
The trouble about man is twofold. He cannot learn truths which are too
complicated; he forgets truths which are too simple. Rebecca West
The guiding motto in the life of every natural philosopher should be,
Seek simplicity and distrust it. Alfred North Whitehead
Simplicity is the glory of expression. Walt Whitman
The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple. Oscar Wilde
We Americans, we're a simple people . . . but piss us off, and we'll
bomb your cities. Robin Williams
'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free, 'tis the gift to
come down where we ought to be, and when we find ourselves in the place
just right, 'twill be in the valley of love and delight. When true
simplicity is gained to bow and to bend we shan't be ashamed, to turn,
turn, will be our delight till by turning, turning we come round right.
Shaker hymn
Avoid biting when a simple growl will do. On hot days, drink lots of
water and lie under a shady tree. When you're happy, dance around and
wag your entire body. No matter how often you're scolded, don't buy into
the guilt thing and pout - run right back and make friends. Delight in
the simple joy of a long walk. Anonymous
--
"Reason, Observation and Experience - the Holy Trinity of Science - have
taught us that happiness is the only good; that the time to be happy is
now, the place to be happy is here, and the way to be happy is to make
others so." Robert G. Ingersoll
_____________________________
0 0 . . Grace McGarvie . .
J . . . .
{___} . . Plymouth,Mn. 55447 . .
. . gem...@attbi.com . .
Nathanael Thompson
Foster tune on his new harmonica heard from the correct esthetic distance
projects more magic and power than the entire Vienna Philharmonic and Chorus
laboring (once again) through the Mozart Requiem or Bach's B Minor Mass."
--Edward Abbey
"I threw my cup away when I saw a child
drinking from his hands at the trough."
--Diogenes
"To find the universal elements enough;
to find the air and the water exhilarating;
to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter;
to be thrilled by the stars at night;
to be elated over a bird's nest or a wildflower in spring --
these are some of the rewards of the simple life."
--John Burroughs
"Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back
and realize they were the big things."
--Robert Brault
G. K. Chesterton On Sandals and Simplicity:
The great misfortune of the modern English is not at all that they are more
boastful than other people (they are not); it is that they are boastful about
those particular things which nobody can boast of without losing them. A
Frenchman can be proud of being bold and logical, and still remain bold and
logical. A German can be proud of being reflective and orderly, and still remain
reflective and orderly. But an Englishman cannot be proud of being simple and
direct, and still remain simple and direct. In the matter of these strange
virtues, to know them is to kill them. A man may be conscious of being heroic or
conscious of being divine, but he cannot (in spite of all the Anglo-Saxon poets)
be conscious of being unconscious.
Now, I do not think that it can be honestly denied that some portion of this
impossibility attaches to a class very different in their own opinion, at least,
to the school of Anglo-Saxonism. I mean that school of the simple life, commonly
associated with Tolstoy. If a perpetual talk about one's own robustness leads to
being less robust, it is even more true that a perpetual talking about one's own
simplicity leads to being less simple. One great complaint, I think, must stand
against the modern upholders of the simple life - the simple life in all its
varied forms, from vegetarianism to the honourable consistency of the
Doukhobors. This complaint against them stands, that they would make us simple
in the unimportant things, but complex in the important things. They would make
us simple in the things that do not matter-that is, in diet, in costume, in
etiquette, in economic system. But they would make us complex in the things that
do matter - in philosophy, in loyalty, in spiritual acceptance, and spiritual
rejection. It does not so very much matter whether a man eats a grilled tomato
or a plain tomato; it does very much matter whether he eats a plain tomato with
a grilled mind. The only kind of simplicity worth preserving is the simplicity
of the heart, the simplicity which accepts and enjoys. There may be a reasonable
doubt as to what system preserves this; there can surely be no doubt that a
system of simplicity destroys it. There is more simplicity in the man who eats
caviar on impulse than in the man who eats grape-nuts on principle. The chief
error of these people is to be found in the very phrase to which they are most
attached - "plain living and high thinking." These people do not stand in need
of, will not be improved by, plain living and high thinking. They stand in need
of the contrary. They would be improved by high living and plain thinking. A
little high living (I say, having a full sense of responsibility, a little high
living) would teach them the force and meaning of the human festivities, of the
banquet that has gone on from the beginning of the world. It would teach them
the historic fact that the artificial is, if anything, older than the natural.
It would teach them that the loving-cup is as old as any hunger. It would teach
them that ritualism is older than any religion. And a little plain thinking
would teach them how harsh and fanciful are the mass of their own ethics, how
very civilized and very complicated must be the brain of the Tolstoyan who
really believes it to be evil to love one's country and wicked to strike a blow.
A man approaches, wearing sandals and simple raiment, a raw tomato held firmly
in his right hand, and says, "The affections of family and country alike are
hindrances to the fuller development of human love;" but the plain thinker will
only answer him, with a wonder not untinged with admiration, "What a great deal
of trouble you must have taken in order to feel like that." High living will
reject the tomato. Plain thinking will equally decisively reject the idea of the
invariable sinfulness of war. High living will convince us that nothing is more
materialistic than to despise a pleasure as purely material. And plain thinking
will convince us that nothing is more materialistic than to reserve our horror
chiefly for material wounds.
The only simplicity that matters is the simplicity of the heart. If that be
gone, it can be brought back by no turnips or cellular clothing; but only by
tears and terror and the fires that are not quenched. If that remain, it matters
very little if a few Early Victorian armchairs remain along with it.
--G. K. Chesterton
_Heretics_ Chapter 10 - On Sandals and Simplicity (1905)
http://www.classicbookshelf.com/library/g_k_chesterton/heretics/10
-+-
Nate Thompson
"It takes a village to raise a child. The village is Washington. You are the
child."
--P. J. O'Rourke
SteveMR200
<eieio...@chariot.net.au> wrote:
>I DON'T KNOW WHY EVERYBODY HAS TO TALK ABOUT EVERYTHING ALL THE TIME
>~From "On Golden Pond" ( 1981)
Never speak loudly to one another unless the house is on fire.
--Harold William Thompson
_Body, Boots and Britches_
--
Steve
SteveMR200
Speak softly--those who cannot hear an angry shout
may strain to hear a whisper.
--Star Trek: The Next Generation
The trumpet does no more stun you by its loudness,
than a whisper teases you by its provoking inaudibility.
--Charles Lamb (1775-1834)
_Essays of Elia_ [1832], "The Old and the New Schoolmaster"
--
Steve
Erica
> >>~From "On Golden Pond" ( 1981)
> Speak softly--those who cannot hear an angry shout
> may strain to hear a whisper.
> --Star Trek: The Next Generation
________________________
I hear my voice but is it falling
Falling on deaf ears again?
However loud I shout are my words falling
Falling on deaf ears again?
~ Dave Floyd (lyric)
What matters deafness of the ears when the mind hears? The one true
deafness, the incurable deafness, is that of the mind.
~Victor Hugo
Erica
________________________
Pat Sweeny
Tom
> "Simplicity is always a virtue. One kid on a riverbank working out a
> Stephen Foster tune on his new harmonica heard from the correct esthetic
> distance projects more magic and power than the entire Vienna Philharmonic
> and Chorus laboring (once again) through the Mozart Requiem or Bach's B
> Minor Mass."
> --Edward Abbey
Sign of a debased musical taste if I ever read one.
Tom Parsons
--
--
t...@panix.com | The only maxim of a free government ought
| to be to trust no man living with power to
http://www.panix.com/~twp | endanger the public liberty. --John Adams
Daniel P. B. Smith
wrote:
> Pat Sweeny <psw...@frontiernet.net> wrote:
>
> > "Simplicity is always a virtue. One kid on a riverbank working out a
> > Stephen Foster tune on his new harmonica heard from the correct esthetic
> > distance projects more magic and power than the entire Vienna Philharmonic
> > and Chorus laboring (once again) through the Mozart Requiem or Bach's B
> > Minor Mass."
> > --Edward Abbey
>
> Sign of a debased musical taste if I ever read one.
"A song, Mr Freeman. We have all of us heard that you sing well. Let
us hear you."
Hornblower did not add that it was from a Junior Lord of the
Admiralty that he had heard about Freeman's singing ability, and he
concealed the fact that singing meant nothing to him. Other people
had this strange desire to hear music, and it was well to gratify
the odd whim.
There was nothing self-conscious about Freeman when it came to
singing: he simply lifted his chin, opened his mouth, and sang.
When first I looked in Chloe's eyes
Sapphire seas and summer skies ã
An odd thing this music was. Freeman was clearly performing some
interesting and difficult feat; he was giving decided pleasure to
these others (Hornblower stole a glance at them), but all he was
doing was to squeak and to grunt in different fashions, and drag out
the words in an arbitrary way ã and such words. For the thousandth
time in his life Hornblower gave up the struggle to imagine just
what this music was which other people liked so much. He told
himself, as he always did, that for him to make the attempt was like
a blind man trying to imagine colour.
--C. S. Forester, "Commodore Hornblower"
--
Daniel P. B. Smith
Email address: dpbs...@world.std.com
"Lifetime forwarding" address: dpbs...@alum.mit.edu