“To every problem, there is a most simple solution.”
Agatha Christie book The Clocks
Source: The Clocks
“As the man said, for every complex problem there’s a simple solution, and it’s wrong.”
— Umberto Eco, book Foucault's Pendulum
Source: Foucault's Pendulum
Last update June 3, 2021. History
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Umberto Eco120
Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher, literary critic… 1932–2016Related quotes
“Complex problems do not demand complex solutions.”
Solution-Focused Pastoral Counseling: An Effective Short-Term Approach for Getting People Back on Track
“If Perl is the solution, you're solving the wrong problem.”
Erik Naggum (1965–2009) Norwegian computer programmer
Re: Q: on hashes and counting (Usenet article) http://groups.google.com/group/comp.lang.lisp/msg/ba0447f11766db41. <br class="br">Usenet articles, Perl
H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer
The portion after the second semicolon is widely paraphrased or misquoted. Two examples are "For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong" and "There is always an easy solution to every human problem -- neat, plausible, and wrong."
1910s
Source: "The Divine Afflatus" in New York Evening Mail (16 November 1917); later published in Prejudices: Second Series (1920) and A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949)
Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)
In some published transcripts or quotations of this speech a variant of this statement appears immediately before the quote by Churchill below, but was not said during Reagan's televised address on (27 October 1964). Though he did make variations of the speech elsewhere it is unclear exactly when and where he may have said used these precise words:<br>: They say the world has become too complex for simple answers. They are wrong. There are no easy answers, but there are simple answers. We must have the courage to do what we know is morally right. <br class="br">Later variant: For many years now, you and I have been shushed like children and told there are no simple answers to the complex problems which are beyond our comprehension. Well, the truth is, there are simple answers, they just are not easy ones.<br>:* California Gubernatorial Inauguration Speech (5 January 1967) http://www.reagan.utexas.edu/archives/speeches/govspeech/01051967a.htm <br class="br">1960s, A Time for Choosing (1964)
“We always may be sure that every man-made thing arises from a problem as a purposeful solution.”
George Kubler (1912–1996) American art historian
Source: The Shape of Time, 1982, p. 8.
“...for each day there is a new problem and for every problem an expedient solution.”
Bahá'u'lláh (1817–1892) founder of the Bahá'í Faith
The Kitáb-i-Aqdas