The Age of Uncertainty (1977), BBC Television series (also published in book form, non verbatim version)
“Theorems often tell us complex truths about the simple things, but only rarely tell us simple truths about the complex ones. To believe otherwise is wishful thinking or "mathematics envy."”
Music, Mind, and Meaning (1981)
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Marvin Minsky 65
American cognitive scientist 1927–2016Related quotes
“Life is not complex. We are complex. Life is simple, and the simple thing is the right thing.”
Science in the Dock, Discussion with Noam Chomsky, Lawrence Krauss & Sean M. Carroll (2011), 2, Chomsky.info, March 1, 2006, August 16, 2011 http://www.chomsky.info/debates/20060301.htm,
Quotes 2010s, 2011
[The threefold way: algebraic structure of symmetry groups and ensembles in quantum mechanics, Jour. Math. Phys., 3, 1962, 1199–1215, https://books.google.com/books?id=nnyNUidX1OMC&pg=PA410] (p. 1200)
Remarks quoted in The Pittsburgh Press (3 August 1986) "Gadhafi, the man the world loves to hate" by Marie Colvin (UPI)
Source: 1980s, Against The Grain (1986), Ch. 10, The Critic as Clown
“The truth is rarely pure and never simple.”
Source: The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)
Context: Jack: That, my dear Algy, is the whole truth pure and simple.
Algernon: The truth is rarely pure and never simple. Modern life would be very tedious if it were either, and modern literature a complete impossibility!
Act I
Often quoted as "The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple."
“The great advantage about telling the truth is that nobody ever believes it.”