Simplicity Quotes

“Light boats sail swift, though greater hulks draw deep.”

“No, no, no, no! Come, let's away to prison: We two alone will sing like birds i' the cage: When thou dost ask me blessing, I'll kneel down, And ask of thee forgiveness: so we'll live, And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues Talk of court news; and we'll talk with them too, Who loses and who wins; who's in, who's out; And take upon's the mystery of things, As if we were God's spies: and we'll wear out, In a wall'd prison, packs and sects of great ones, That ebb and flow by the moon.”

“More matter with less art.”

“Truth needs no color; beauty, no pencil.”

“Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile,Hath not old custom made this life more sweetThan that of painted pomp? Are not these woodsMore free from peril than the envious court?”

“Love, therefore, and tongue-tied simplicityIn least speak most, to my capacity.”

“Can anything be so elegant as to have few wants, and to serve them one's self?”

“Where the bee sucks, there suck I In the cow-slip's bell i lie There I couch when owls do cry”

“The poet's habit of living should be set on a key so low that the common influences should delight him.”

“Do not craze yourself with thinking, but go about your business anywhere.”

“A man in a cave or in a camp, a nomad, will die with no more estate than the wolf or the horse leaves.”

“Always maintain your common sense and artful skills, and funnel it all into plain enough dealings.”

“I have no hostility to nature, but a child's love to it. I expand and live in the warm day like corn and melons.”

“The secret of culture is to learn, that a few great points steadily reappear, alike in the poverty of the obscurest farm, and in the miscellany of metropolitan life, and that these few are alone to be regarded,--the escape from all false ties; courage to be what we are; and love what is simple and beautiful; independence and cheerful relation, these are the essentials,--these, and the wish to serve,--to add somewhat to the well-being of men.”

“Nature hates calculators.”

“Writing should be the settlement of dew on the leaf.”

“It is the last lesson of modern science, that the highest simplicity of structure is produced, not by few elements, but by the highest complexity.”

“The proof of a high education is the ability to speak about complex matters as simply as possible.”

“We dare not trust our wit for making our house pleasant to our friend, so we buy ice cream.”

“The line of beauty is the line of perfect economy.”

“Common sense is genius dressed in its working clothes.”

“The simplicity of the universe is very different from the simplicity of a machine. The simplicity of nature is not that which may be easily read but is inexhaustible. The last analysis can no wise be made.”

“Sometimes, less is more.”

“Manners are the happy ways of doing things.”

“You must treat the days respectfully, you must be a day yourself, and not interrogate it like a college professor.”