“The greater the emotional intensity, the greater the simplicity.”

— Alan Hovhaness

Alan Hovhaness program notes to “Avak The Healer” (1946).

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

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Alan Hovhaness 4

Armenian-American composer 1911–2000

Ad Reinhardt (1913–1967) American painter

quote in 1943, discussing the art of Piet Mondrian
Quote of Ad Reinhardt in: Abstract Expressionism, Davind Anfam, Thames and Hudson Ltd London, 1990, p. ?
1940 - 1955

“My greater simplicity came from a deeper level than the labyrinth of the brain.”

Northrop Frye (1912–1991) Canadian literary critic and literary theorist

1:61-2
"Quotes", Late Notebooks, 1982–1990: Architecture of the Spiritual World (2002)

“What greater challenge today…. to disorder and insensitivity; what greater propaganda for integration than this emotionally intense, dramatic division of space? [quote in 1943, discussing the art of Piet Mondrian ]”

Ad Reinhardt (1913–1967) American painter

Quote of Ad Reinhardt in: Abstract Expressionism, Davind Anfam, Thames and Hudson Ltd London, 1990, p. ?
1940 - 1955

“A theory is the more impressive, the greater the simplicity of its premises, the more diverse things it connects, and the wider its scope”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

1940s, "Autobiographical Notes" (1949)
Original: (de) Eine Theorie ist desto eindrucksvoller, je größer die Einfachheit ihrer Prämissen ist, je verschiedenartigere Dinge sie verknüpft, und je weiter ihr Anwendungsbereich ist.

“Out of intense complexities, intense simplicities emerge”

Winston S. Churchill (1874–1965) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

“Awe is more than an emotion; it is a way of understanding, insight into a meaning greater than ourselves.”

Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907–1972) Polish-American Conservative Judaism Rabbi

Source: Who Is Man? (1965), Ch. 5
Context: Awe is more than an emotion; it is a way of understanding, insight into a meaning greater than ourselves. The beginning of awe is wonder, and the beginning of wisdom is awe.
Awe is an intuition for the dignity of all things, a realization that things not only are what they are but also stand, however remotely, for something supreme. Awe is a sense for transcendence, for the reference everywhere to mystery beyond all things. It enables us to perceive in the world intimations of the divine, to sense in small things the beginning of infinite significance, to sense the ultimate in the common and the simple: to feel in the rush of the passing the stillness of the eternal. What we cannot comprehend by analysis, we become aware of in awe.

“Now verse is more valuable than prose … for the simple reasons that its rhythms are faster and more highly organized than are those of prose, and so lend themselves to a greater complexity and compression of relationship, and that the intensity of this convention renders possible a greater intensity of other desirable conventions, such as poetic language and devices of rhetoric.”

Yvor Winters (1900–1968) American poet and literary critic

The Morality of Poetry
Primitivism and Decadence : A Study of American Experimental Poetry (1937)

“Simplicity in a system tends to increase that system’s efficiency. Because less can go wrong with fewer parts, less will. Complexity in a system tends to increase that system’s inefficiency; the greater the number of variables, the greater the probability of those variables clashing, and in turn, the greater the potential for conflict and disarray. Because more can go wrong, more will. That is why centralized systems are inclined to break down quickly and become enmeshed in greater unintended consequences.”

L. K. Samuels (1951) American writer

Source: In Defense of Chaos: The Chaology of Politics, Economics and Human Action, (2013), p. 191

“The most important opportunity offered by increased exposure is the chance to focus with greater faith and intensity upon the hard work of writing.”

David Chariandy (1969) Canadian writer

On his increased exposure as a writer in “Interviews: David Chariandy” https://bookpage.com/interviews/22971-david-chariandy-fiction#.XfgMUulKjcs in BookPage (2018 Aug 1)

“By this means all knowledge degenerates into probability; and this probability is greater or less, according to our experience of the veracity or deceitfulness of our understanding, and according to the simplicity or intricacy of the question.”

David Hume book A Treatise of Human Nature

Part 4, Section 1
A Treatise of Human Nature (1739-40), Book 1: Of the understanding

“The greater the emotional intensity, the greater the simplicity.”

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