“If you try to simplify or pare off the superfluous from the minds and speech of most men, you will find that nothing is left. There is no simplicity in them, for there is no truth; truth and simplicity being, as Aquinas says, the same thing.”

— Coventry Patmore

Aurea Dicta VI, p. 4.
The Rod, the Root, and the Flower (1895)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "If you try to simplify or pare off the superfluous from the minds and speech of most men, you will find that nothing is…" by Coventry Patmore?

Coventry Patmore photo

Coventry Patmore 33

English poet 1823–1896

Related quotes

“Cherish the Minnesota State Fair. Wherever you find beauty and simplicity and truth, know that there is a committee somewhere planning to improve it --- don't let them do it.”

Garrison Keillor (1942) American radio host and writer

University of Minnesota Alumni Association (UMAA) Annual Meeting Keynote Speech (29 April 1992) UMAA 199204 to 199306 Meeting Minutes http://conservancy.umn.edu/bitstream/48842/1/199204-199306.pdf

“Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.”

Isaac Newton (1643–1727) British physicist and mathematician and founder of modern classical physics

Cited in Rules for methodizing the Apocalypse, Rule 9, from a manuscript published in The Religion of Isaac Newton (1974) by Frank E. Manuel, p. 120, as quoted in Socinianism And Arminianism : Antitrinitarians, Calvinists, And Cultural Exchange in Seventeenth-Century Europe (2005) by Martin Mulsow, Jan Rohls, p. 273.
As quoted in God in the Equation : How Einstein Transformed Religion (2002) by Corey S. Powell, p. 29
Variant: Truth is ever to be found in the simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.

“What's really important is to simplify. The work of most photographers would be improved immensely if they could do one thing: get rid of the extraneous. If you strive for simplicity, you are more likely to reach the viewer.”

William Albert Allard (1937) Photographer

“Sometimes you say things in songs even if there's a small chance of them being true. And sometimes you say things that have nothing to do with the truth of what you want to say and sometimes you say things that everyone knows to be true. Then again, at the same time, you're thinking that the only truth on earth is that there is no truth on it. Whatever you are saying, you're saying in a ricky-tick way. There's never time to reflect. You stitched and pressed and packed and drove, is what you did.”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

Source: Chronicles: Vol. One (2004), p. 220

“There is no greatness where there is not simplicity, goodness, and truth.”

Leo Tolstoy book War and Peace

Source: War and Peace

“Truth has been confused. Simplicity refused.”

Dawud Wharnsby (1972) Canadian musician

"Love Strong"
The Poets And The Prophet (2006)

“All religions are incorporated in the principle of Truth, Simplicity and Love.”

Haidakhan Babaji teacher in northern India

December 1981
The Teachings of Babaji

“When you're conscious and writing from a place of insight and simplicity and real caring about the truth, you have the ability to throw the lights on for your reader.”

Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist

Bird by Bird

“I find that to be a fool as to worldly wisdom, and to commit my cause to God, not fearing to offend men, who take offence at the simplicity of truth, is the only way to remain unmoved at the sentiments of others.”

John Woolman (1720–1772) American Quaker preacher

Source: The Journal of John Woolman (1774), p. 36; as cited in: Ruth Marie Griffith (2008) American Religions: A Documentary History. p. 137

“For us, with the rule of right and wrong given us by Christ, there is nothing for which we have no standard. And there is no greatness where there is not simplicity, goodness, and truth.”

Leo Tolstoy book War and Peace

Bk. XIV, ch. 18
War and Peace (1865–1867; 1869)

Related topics