“The elaborate argument against the constitutionality of the Act if interpreted as we read it, in accordance with its obvious meaning does not need an elaborate answer.”

Writing for the Court, United States v. Wurzbach, 280 U.S. 396, 399 (1930).
1930s

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Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.107

United States Supreme Court justice 1841–1935

Robertson Davies (1913–1995) Canadian journalist, playwright, professor, critic, and novelist

"Aristonmetron" is an unusual formation of the Greek άριστον μέτρον (ariston metron or metron ariston: "Moderation is best").
Opera and Humour (1991)

“The more we elaborate our means of communication, the less we communicate.”

J.B. Priestley (1894–1984) English writer

Thoughts in the Wilderness (London: William Heinemann, 1957), p. 201.

“The more elaborate our means of communication, the less we communicate.”

Joseph Priestley (1733–1804) English theologian, chemist, educator, and political theorist

“When poetry loses its ability to enchant, it shrinks into what is just an elaborate form of argumentation. When verse casts its particular spell, it becomes the most evocative form of language.”

Dana Gioia (1950) American writer

Essays, Can Poetry Matter? (1991), Poetry as Enchantment (2015)

“Positivism … implies the double falsehood that no interpretation is needed, and that it is not needed because the story which the positivist writer tells, such as it is, is obvious. The story he or she tells is usually a bad one, and its being obvious only means that it is familiar.”

Bernard Williams (1929–2003) English moral philosopher

Source: Truth and Truthfulness (2002), p. 12

“(About gay cruising) My gays had to school me, and they said there's a whole system and a language to the tapping. One tap means you're a top, two means you're a bottom….. I don't know, it's very elaborate. Very elaborate.”

Kathy Griffin (1960) American actress and comedian

Straight To Hell (2007)

“I have used the word 'flow' at many places without really elaborating its meaning. What is this flow? And what are these joys? I could call them moments of magic. I see an anology between these moments and the high that you experience when you play badminton or go jogging. Flow is a sensation we experience when we act with total involvement. During flow, action follows action according to an internal logic that seems to need no conscious intervention on the part of the worker. There is no hurry, there are no distracting demands on one's attention. The past and the future disappear. So does the distinction between self and the activity.”

A. P. J. Abdul Kalam book Wings of Fire

Source: Wings of Fire, p. 91.

“I don't mean sound as decoration or elaboration, but the actual cadence that moves tge thing along.”

Seamus Heaney (1939–2013) Irish poet, playwright, translator, lecturer

'Stepping Stones' interviews with Seamus Heaney' by Dennis O'Driscoll Faber and Faber 2009
Other Quotes

“Any artist should be grateful for a naïve grace which puts him beyond the need to reason elaborately.”

Saul Bellow (1915–2005) Canadian-born American writer

Foreword to The Closing of the American Mind by Allan Bloom (1987)
General sources

“The bottom line is the American people are capable of determining their own heroes — ideals for heroes — and they don't need to be told elaborate lies.”

Jessica Lynch (1983) Recipient of the Purple Heart medal

Congressional testimony (2007)

“The elaborate argument against the constitutionality of the Act if interpreted as we read it, in accordance with its obvious meaning does not need an elaborate answer.”

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Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.107

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