
“To say more while saying less is the secret of being simple.”
Simplicity http://www.poetrysoup.com/famous/poem/21390/Simplicity
From the poems written in English
“To say more while saying less is the secret of being simple.”
Simplicity http://www.poetrysoup.com/famous/poem/21390/Simplicity
From the poems written in English
It is true that this proviso is hardly necessary as regards the multiplication table, but knowledge in practical affairs has not the certainty or the precision of arithmetic. Suppose I say "democracy is a good thing": I must admit, first, that I am less sure of this than I am that two and two are four, and secondly, that "democracy" is a somewhat vague term which I cannot define precisely. We ought to say, therefore: "I am fairly certain that it is a good thing if a government has something of the characteristics that are common to the British and American Constitutions," or something of this sort. And one of the aims of education ought to be to make such a statement more effective from a platform than the usual type of political slogan.
1940s, Philosophy for Laymen (1946)
"I Can't Give Everything Away"
Song lyrics, Blackstar (2016)
Letter to John Taylor (28 May 1816) ME 15:23 http://www.britannica.com/presidents/article-9116907
1810s
Context: We may say with truth and meaning that governments are more or less republican, as they have more or less of the element of popular election and control in their composition; and believing, as I do, that the mass of the citizens is the safest depository of their own rights, and especially, that the evils flowing from the duperies of the people are less injurious than those from the egoism of their agents, I am a friend to that composition of government which has in it the most of this ingredient. And I sincerely believe, with you, that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies; and that the principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.
Source: god is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything
“Good job. More public indecency, less TSA, that's what I say.”
[In response to http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2012/07/northeast_portland_man_who_str.html]
2010s, 2012
“It is a flat'ning Thought, that the more we have seen, the less we have to say.”
Letter to James Gillman (9 October 1825)
Letters
[199709051808.LAA01780@wall.org, 1997]
Usenet postings, 1997