My 27 Favorite Quotes on Simplicity

At Siegel+Gale, we often think of simplicity as creating brand experiences that are remarkably clear and unexpectedly fresh.

Of course, simplicity is not a new trend. It has been an inspiration for artists, poets, philosophers, visionaries, and leaders throughout the course of time. I thought it'd be fun to share 27 of my favorite quotes on simplicity. Here are my favorites, what are yours?

“Simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance.”

- Coco Chanel

“Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art.”

- Frederic Chopin

“Nature is pleased with simplicity. And nature is no dummy.”

- Isaac Newton

“I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures.”

- Lao Tzu

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”

- Leonardo da Vinci

“Beauty of style and harmony and grace and good rhythm depend on simplicity.”

- Plato

“That’s been one of my mantras – focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex…”

- Steve Jobs

“Mental toughness is many things. It is humility because it behooves all of us to remember that simplicity is the sign of greatness and meekness is the sign of true strength.”

- Vince Lombardi

“The art of art, the glory of expression, and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity.”

- Walt Whitman

“A vocabulary of truth and simplicity will be of service throughout your life.”

- Winston Churchill

“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”

- Albert Einstein

“A little simplification would be the first step toward rational living, I think”

- Eleanor Roosevelt

“I like simplicity; I don’t need luxury.”

- Francis Ford Coppola

“Some of the greatest poetry is revealing to the reader the beauty in something that was so simple you had taken it for granted.”

- Neil Degrasse Tyson

“Great leaders are almost always great simplifiers, who can cut through argument, debate, and doubt to offer a solution everybody can understand.”

- General Colin Powell

“Don’t make the process harder than it is.”

- Jack Welch

“We have one hardware organization. We have one software organization. It’s not like we’re this big company with all these divisions that are cranking out products. We’re simpletons.”

- Tim Cook

“Simplicity is an exact medium between too little and too much.”

- Joshua Reynolds

“Tis the gift to be simple, Tis the gift to be free…”

- Joseph Brackett

"Simplicity is a choice, a discrimination, a crystallization. Its object is purity.”

- Le Corbusier

"The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.”

- Hans Hofmann

“Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity.”

- Charles Mingus

“The greatest ideas are the simplest.”

- William Golding

“Three rules of work: out of clutter find simplicity. From discord find harmony. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”

- Albert Einstein

“The core of beauty is simplicity”

- Paulo Coelho

“I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.”

- Oscar Wilde

“It is the essence of genius to make use of the simplest ideas.”

- Charles Péguy  

I’d love to hear your quotes on simplicity in the comments below.

Margaret Molloy is the Global CMO at Siegel+Gale, a leading strategic branding firm.  To see a version of this post on SlideShare click here.