“Nature is not embarrassed by difficulties of analysis. She avoids complication only in means.”

— Augustin-Jean Fresnel

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Context: In choosing a theory, one should pay attention to simplicity in hypotheses only. Simplicity in computation can be of no weight in the balance of probabilities. Nature is not embarrassed by difficulties of analysis. She avoids complication only in means. Nature seems to be proposed to do much with little: it is a principle that the development of physics constantly supports by new evidence.

Original

Dans le choix d'un système, on ne doit avoir égard qu'à la simplicité des hypothèses; celle des calculs ne peut être d'aucun poids dans la balance des probabilités. La nature ne s'est pas embarrassée des difficultés d'analyse; elle n'a évité que la complication des moyens. Elle paraît s'être proposé de faire beaucoup avec peu : c'est un principe que le perfectionnement des sciences physiques appuie sans cesse de preuves nouvelles.

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Augustin-Jean Fresnel 4

French engineer and physicist 1788–1827

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