“Elegant as simplicity, and warm
As ecstasy.”
William Cowper (1731–1800) (1731–1800) English poet and hymnodist
Source: Table Talk (1782), Line 588.
“Elegance of language must give way before simplicity in preaching sound doctrine.”
Reported in Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895) edited by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, p. 481
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Girolamo Savonarola11
Italian Dominican friar and preacher 1452–1498Related quotes
“The elegant simplicity of the three per cents.”
William Scott, 1st Baron Stowell (1745–1836) British politician
As quoted in Lives of the Lord Chancellors (1845) by John Campbell, Vol. x. Chap. 212; this precedes the use by Benjamin Disraeli of "The sweet simplicity of the three per cents", in Endymion (1880).
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in a NOVA interview Viewpoints on String Theory, Edward Witten http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/elegant/view-witten.html, July 2003.
William Tyndale (1494–1536) Bible translator and agitator from England
The Obedience of A Christian Man (1528)
Context: The preaching of God’s word is hateful and contrary unto them. Why? For it is impossible to preach Christ, except thou preach against antichrist; that is to say, them which with their false doctrine and violence of sword enforce to quench the true doctrine of Christ. And as thou canst heal no disease, except thou begin at the root; even so canst thou preach against no mischief, except thou begin at the bishops.
Edsger W. Dijkstra (1930–2002) Dutch computer scientist
are not a dispensable luxury, but a crucial matter that decides between success and failure?
1980s
Source: EWD648.
George Orwell book Politics and the English Language
"Politics and the English Language" (1946)
Context: Political language — and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists — is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.