“It was beautiful and simple as all truly great swindles are.”
"The Octopus Marooned"
The Gentle Grafter (1908)
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O. Henry 49
American short story writer 1862–1910Related quotes

“A great swindle of our time is the assumption that science has made religion obsolete.”
Bennington College address (1970)
Context: A great swindle of our time is the assumption that science has made religion obsolete. All science has damaged is the story of Adam and Eve and the story of Jonah and the Whale. Everything else holds up pretty well, particularly lessons about fairness and gentleness. People who find those lessons irrelevant in the twentieth century are simply using science as an excuse for greed and harshness. Science has nothing to do with it, friends.
“Flawed, we're truly interesting, truly memorable, and yes, truly beautiful.”
Source: North of Beautiful

“There's a great and unutterable beauty in all this.”
Source: 1970s, Krishnamurti's Notebook (1976), p. 166

“Nothing is more simple than greatness; indeed, to be simple is to be great.”

Talking about "a stark, basic principle underpins even the most complex symphony or mathematical application."
Music + Math: A Common Equation?, 1988