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• Complex: Consisting of many interconnecting parts or elements; intricate. Oxford Dictionary
• Complex: Difficult to understand or find an answer to because of having many different parts. Cambridge University
• Complex: So complicated or intricate as to be hard to understand or deal with. Dictionary.com
• Confusion,  Clutter, Simplicity, Clarity,  Straightforwardness

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The universe is complex …

• There is a new science of complexity which says that the link between cause and effect is increasingly difficult to trace; that change (planned or otherwise) unfolds in non-linear ways; that paradoxes and contradictions abound; and that creative solutions arise out of diversity, uncertainty and chaos. Andy Hargreaves
• The world is a thing of utter inordinate complexity and richness and strangeness that is absolutely awesome. Douglas Adams
• There is no limit to how complicated things can get, on account of one thing always leading to another. E. B. White
• Our sunsets have been reduced to wavelengths and frequencies. The complexities of the universe have been shredded into mathematical equations. Even our self-worth as human beings has been destroyed. Dan Brown
• The beauty of mother nature is her ability to make complex things appear simple. Loius E Samuels, M.D.
• The universe

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… or is it?

• The universe is simple; it’s the explanation that’s complex. Woody Allen

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Life is complex …

• Life is not complex. We are complex.  Life is simple, and the simple thing is the right thing. Oscar Wilde
• If you’re not confused, you’re not paying attention. Tom Peters
• I never knew anybody . . . who found life simple. I think a life or a time looks simple when you leave out the details. Ursula K. Le Guin
• We are gaining ever more awe for the complexity, the beauty, the wonder of God’s most divine and sacred gift. Bill Clinton
• Everything is both simpler than we can imagine, and more complicated that we can conceiveJohann Wolfgang von Goethe
• People tend to complicate their own lives, as if living weren’t already complicated enough. Carlos Ruiz Zafón

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… or is it?

• Life is not complex. We are complex.  Life is simple, and the simple thing is the right thing. Oscar Wilde
• Any life, no matter how long and complex it may be, is made up of a single moment–the moment in which a man finds out, once and for all, who he is. Jorge Luis Borges

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Some argue that life is simple but it is we who insist on complicating it

• Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. Confucius
• Maintaining a complicated life is a great way to avoid changing it. Elaine St James
• Man must feel the earth to know himself and recognize his values…God made life simple. It is man who complicates it. Charles A. Lindbergh
• Simplicity is an acquired taste. Mankind, left free, instinctively complicates life. Katharine Fullerton Gerould

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We are complex beings …

• Man is a complex being: he makes deserts bloom – and lakes die. Gil Stern
• The practice of Yoga brings us face to face with the extraordinary complexity of our own being. Sri Aurobindo
• I’m an oddity of one, my strangeness too complicated to explain or share. Libba Bray
• Most people are much more unusual and complicated and eccentric and playful and creative than they have time to express. Oliver Herring
• The mission of photography is to explain man to man and each to himself. And that is the most complicated thing on earth. Edward Steichen
• The buddhists say there are 149 ways to god. I’m not looking for god, only for myself, and that is far more complicated. Jeanette Winterson

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… or are we?

• All I know is I make sense to me- it’s other people who seem complicated. Tara Kelly

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Embrace yourself as the complex package you are

• There comes a time when you have to stand up and shout: This is me damn it! I look the way I look, think the way I think, feel the way I feel, love the way I love! I am a whole complex package. Take me… or leave me. Accept me – or walk away! Do not try to make me feel like less of a person, just because I don’t fit your idea of who I should be and don’t try to change me to fit your mold. If I need to change, I alone will make that decision. When you are strong enough to love yourself 100%, good and bad – you will be amazed at the opportunities that life presents you. Stacey Charter

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The mind is complex

• If our brains were simple enough for us to understand them, we’d be so simple that we couldn’t. Ian Stewart
• Memory is a complicated thing, a relative to truth, but not its twin. Barbara Kingsolver, Animal Dreams
• Paradoxically, as the mind becomes simpler, it can perceive greater complexity. William Hamilton
• Very simple ideas lie within the reach only of complex minds.  Remy De Gourmont
• The mind

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The heart is complex

• There are emotions which are biologically oriented and then there are complex emotions which are saturated with thoughts and cognition. Jack Mayer
• There’s nothing more inspiring than the complexity and beauty of the human heart. Cynthia
• Emotions, in my experience, aren’t covered by single words. I don’t believe in “sadness,” “joy,” or “regret.” Maybe the best proof that the language is patriarchal is that it oversimplifies feeling. I’d like to have at my disposal complicated hybrid emotions. Jeffrey Eugenides
• The heart

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Words and language are complex

• The way towards each other is through our bodies. Words are the longest distance you can travel, so complex and hazardous you lose your direction.  Jeni Couzyn
• All of life in its complexity and beauty is forever minted in the gold of words. Yevgeny Zamyatin
• So much of language is unspoken. So much of language is comprised of looks and gestures and sounds that are not words. People are ignorant of the vast complexity of their own communication. Garth Stein
• Words,  Language

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Our minds are easily drawn to complexity

• When we become expert in something, our tastes grow more esoteric and complex. Malcolm Gladwell
• We struggle with the complexities and avoid the simplicities. Norman Vincent Peale

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Sometimes we create complexity out of boredom

• Boredom has come to be regarded as one of our greatest enemies and we flee from it by generating endless complexity and busyness. Boredom may be no more than a surrender of sensitivity, yet, rather than turning our hearts and minds to rediscover that lost sensitivity, we thirst for even more exciting experiences, drama, and intensity. . . When alienated from inner vitality we mistake intensity for wakefulness. Christina Feldman
• Boredom

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Complexity is admired while simplicity is rewarded …

• Human nature has a tendency to admire complexity but reward simplicity. Ben Huh
• Simplicity

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… or is it?

• Simplicity is a great virtue but it requires hard work to achieve it and education to appreciate it. And to make matters worse: complexity sells better. Edsger Wybe Dijkstra
• The business schools reward difficult complex behaviour more than simple behaviour, but simple behaviour is more effective.  Warren Buffet

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Acknowledge the complexity of the world instead of settling for simplistic explanations

• Acknowledge the complexity of the world and resist the impression that you easily understand it. People are too quick to accept conventional wisdom, because it sounds basically true and it tends to be reinforced by both their peers and opinion leaders, many of whome have never looked at whether the facts support the received wisdom. It’s a basic fact of life that many things “everybody knows” turn out to be wrong.  Jim Rogers
• There is simply too much to think about. It is hopeless — too many kinds of special preparation are required. In electronics, in economics, in social analysis, in history, in psychology, in international politics, most of us are, given the oceanic proliferating complexity of things, paralyzed by the very suggestion that we assume responsibility for so much. This is what makes packaged opinion so attractive. Saul Bellow
• Abandon the urge to simplify everything, to look for formulas and easy answers, and to begin to think multidimensionally, to glory in the mystery and paradoxes of life, not to be dismayed by the multitude of causes and consequences that are inherent in each experience — to appreciate the fact that life is complex. M. Scott Peck
• The ideal art, the noblest of art: working with the complexities of life, refusing to simplify, to “overcome” doubt.” Joyce Carol Oates
• Sometimes people need reasons for things, even when there are no reasons. That’s what makes people believe in conspiracies or religions–if there’s any difference. The world is just too complicated, so they need simple explanations. Tad Williams
• Acknowledgement

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Approach complexity with curiosity

• If you can approach the world’s complexities, both its glories and its horrors, with an attitude of humble curiosity, acknowledging that however deeply you have seen, you have only scratched the surface, you will find worlds within worlds, beauties you could not heretofore imagine, and your own mundane preoccupations will shrink to proper size, not all that important in the greater scheme of things. Daniel C. Dennett
• Curiosity

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Complexity is often a sign we don’t truly understand something yet

• If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough. Albert Einstein
• You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother.  Albert Einstein
• In general, I feel if you can’t say it clearly you don’t understand it yourself. John Rogers Searle
• Complexity is, generally speaking, an illusion of conscious desire. All things exist in as simple a form as necessity dictates. When a thing is labelled ‘complex,’ that’s just a roundabout way of saying you’re not observant enough to understand it.   Lee Martinez
• Understanding

Complexity can be a sign something is too big

• Expansion means complexity and complexity decay. C. Northcote Parkinson

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Some argue dealing with complexity is a waste of time

• Dealing with complexity is an inefficient and unnecessary waste of time, attention and mental energy. There is never any justification for things being complex when they could be simple. Edward de Bono
• Time management

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Complexity is easy; simplicity is the challenge

• Any fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction.  Albert Einstein
• Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean, to make it simple. Steve Jobs
• Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage — to move in the opposite direction. F. Schumacher
• Complexity is easy, simplicity requires mastery. Peter Cajander
• Complex things are easy to do. Simplicity’s the real challenge. Robert James Waller
• That’s been one of my mantras – focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean, to make it simple. But it’s worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains. Steve Jobs
• Simplicity,  Challenge

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Simplicity does not precede complexity, but usually follows it

• When you first start off trying to solve a problem, the first solutions you come up with are very complex, and most people stop there. But if you keep going, and live with the problem and peel more layers of the onion off, you can often times arrive at some very elegant and simple solutions. Steve Jobs
• Simplicity isn’t just a visual style. It’s not just minimalism or the absence of clutter. It involves digging through the depth of the complexity. To be truly simple, you have to go really deep. Steve Jobs
• We must strive to reach the simplicity that lies beyond sophistication. John Gardner
• Out of intense complexities intense simplicities arise. Winston Churchill
• I would not give a fig for the simplicity this side of complexity, but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity. Oliver Wendell Holmes
• True simplicity is derived from so much more than just the absence of clutter and ornamentation — it’s about bringing order to complexity. Jony Ive
• Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it.  Alan Perlis

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Genius and mastery is the ability to reduce the complicated to the simple

• A genius is someone who takes a complex thing and makes it look simple. An academic does the opposite. Robert Fanney
• Genius is the ability to reduce the complicated to the simple. C.W.Ceram
• Complexity is easy, simplicity requires mastery. Peter Cajander
• Find the heart of it. Make the complex simple, and you can achieve mastery. Dan Millman
• Any darn fool can make something complex; it takes a genius to make something simple. Pete Seeger
• Mastery,  Genius

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Making the complicated simple is what creativity is all about

• Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity. Charles Mingu
• Technical skill is mastery of complexity while creativity is mastery of simplicity. Christopher Zeema
• Creativity defeats complication with simplicity, overcomes fear with empowerment, and discovers order by achieving balance. Michael Rawls
• Creativity

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Happiness lies in simplicity; not complexity

• Misery is complexity. Happiness is simplicity. Lester Levenson
• Free yourself from the complexities of your life! A life of simplicity and happiness awaits you. Steve Maraboli
• Happiness is simple. Everything we do to find it is complicated. Karen Maezen Miller
• Happiness

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The truth is usually simple – and complex

• People who pride themselves on their “complexity” and deride others for being “simplistic” should realize that the truth is often not very complicated. What gets complex is evading the truth. Thomas Sowell
• It is a magnificent feeling to recognize the unity of complex phenomena which appear to be things quite apart from the direct visible truth. Albert Einstein
• It’s as simple as that. Simple and complicated, as most true things are. David Levithan
• When the philosopher’s argument becomes tedious, complicated, and opaque, it is usually a sign that he or she is attempting to prove as true to the intellect what is plainly false to common sense. Edward Abbey
• The trouble about man is twofold. He cannot learn truths which are too complicated; he forgets truths which are too simple. Dame Rebecca West
• Truth

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Truth is found when you clear away complexity

• The complexities of adult life get in the way of the truth. The great philosophers have always been able to clear away the complexities and see simple distinctions – simple once they are stated, vastly difficult before. If we are to follow them we too must be childishly simple in our questions – and maturely wise in our replies. Mortimer J. Adler

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Some problems are complex …

• Some problems are so complex that you have to be highly intelligent and well-informed just to be undecided about them. Laurence J. Peter
• No matter how complex global problems may seem, it is we ourselves who have given rise to them. They cannot be beyond our power to resolve.  Daisaku Ikeda
• I have yet to see any problem, however complicated, which, when you looked at it in the right way, did not become still more complicated. Paul Anderson
• Welcome those big, sticky, complicated problems. In them are your most powerful opportunities. Ralph Marston
• Problem solving

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… but simplicity can penetrate to the heart of them

• Simplicity avoids the superficial, penetrates the complex, goes to the heart of the problem and pinpoints key factors. Wilferd A. Peterson
• When you first start off trying to solve a problem, the first solutions you come up with are very complex, and most people stop there. But if you keep going, and live with the problem and peel more layers of the onion off, you can often times arrive at some very elegant and simple solutions. Steve Jobs

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Simplicity, especially the art of it, can be very complex

• Simplicities are enormously complex. Consider the sentence “I love you”. Richard O. Moore
• The art of simplicity is a puzzle of complexity.  Douglas Horton

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Don’t let complexity bog you down

• When you’re first thinking through an idea, it’s important not to get bogged down in complexity. Richard Branson
• Don’t complicate things. Getting to your best life is simple. Not easy but simple. It just takes focus and effort.  Robin Sharma

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Simplify what is complicated

• To simplify complications is the first essential of success. George Earle Buckle
• Out of clutter find simplicity. Albert Einstein
• Simplicity

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Make rules simple; not complex

• Simple, clear purpose and principles give rise to complex and intelligent behavior. Complex rules and regulations give rise to simple and stupid behavior. Dee Hock

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Resist the impulse to turn the simple into the complex …

• Never again will I make the simple into the complex. Something of true value does not become more valuable because it becomes complicated. Experience and conditions come and go; complications arise and fall away, but the simple action of God is eternal in the universe. Donald Curtis
• I believe the art of living consists not so much in complicating simple things as in simplifying things that are not. François Hertel
• Progress is man’s ability to complicate simplicity. Thor-Heyerdahl
• The simpler the deeper. We have a way of making things too complicated. Shawn McNiff
• To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple. Arundhati Roy

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… for many things in life are inherently simple and don’t need to be complicated

• Just pick a goal and stick to it; no big complicated secret. Richelle E. Goodrich
• Stop measuring portions and trying to follow complicated formulas. Instead, eat as many vegetables, beans, and fresh fruits as possible, and less of everything else. Any other program is an insult to your intelligence. Joel Fuhrman, M.D
• Be here now. Be someplace else later. Is that so complicated? David Bader
• Poverty is a very complicated issue, but feeding a child isn’t. Jeff Bridges
• This is my simple religion… There is no need for temples. There is no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is the temple. The philosophy is loving kindness and compassion. The Dalai Lama

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Break complex tasks into simple ones

• Break complex projects into smaller, well-defined tasks. Focus on completing just one of those tasks. Leo Babauta
• The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting with the first one. Mark Twain

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In a complex world, take comfort in simple things

• Year by year the complexities of this world grow more bewildering, and so each year we need all the more to seek peace and comfort in joyful simplicities. Sarah Ban Breathnach
• Whenever the pressure of our complex city life thins my blood and benumbs my brain, I seek relief in the trail; and when I hear the coyote wailing to the yellow dawn, my cares fall from me – I am happy. Hamlin Garland
• To those who complain of the complexity of modern life, Henry David Thoreau might reply, “If you want inner peace find it in solitude, not speed, and if you would find yourself, look to the land from which you came and to which you go.” Stewart Udall
• Simple pleasures are the last healthy refuge in a complex world. Oscar Wilde
• Savour life’s simple joys

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Make life less complex by eliminating needless wants

• Reduce the complexity of life by eliminating the needless wants of life, and the labors of life reduce themselves. Edwin Way Teale

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Simplify complexity but don’t oversimplify it for that leads to simplistic ideas and solutions

• But it is also important to remember not try to over-simplify complex matters. Peter Bevelin

Simplify complexity by asking probing questions

• When things get too complicated, it sometimes makes sense to stop and wonder: Have I asked the right question?” Enrico Bombieri

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Complexity lies in thinking, simplicity in beholding

• Everything is complex and everything is simple. The rose has no why attached to it, it blooms because it blooms, how no thought of itself, or desire to be seen. What could be more complicated than a rose for someone who wants to understand it? What could be simpler for someone who wants nothing? The complexity of thinking, the simplicity of beholding. Andre Comte-Sponville
• Thinking

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Aim for complexity of thought but simplicity of expression

• Personally, I am always more impressed by simplicity, clarity; it is the mark of a writer who knows his subject well and is secure enough not to ‘lay it on’ in the telling. Aim for complexity of thought, not expression. Noah Lukeman
• It is all very well for you to write simply and the simpler the better. But do not start to think so damned simply. Know how complicated it is and then state it simply. Ernest Hemingway

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• I adore simple pleasures. They are the last refuge of the complex. Oscar Wilde
• I hate American simplicity. I glory in the piling up of complications of every sort. Henry James
• I have yet to see any problem, however complicated, which, when you looked at it in the right way, did not become still more complicated. Paul Anderson
• All I know is I make sense to me- it’s other people who seem complicated. Tara Kelly
• Expert: A person who knows enough to complicate simple matters.
• I have yet to see any problem, however complicated, which when you looked at it in the right way did not become still more complicated.  Poul Anderson
• If people do not believe that mathematics is simple it is only because they do not realize how complicated life is.  John von Neumann
• Most people make babies out to be very complicated but the truth is they have only three moods: 1. Just about to cry Crying 3. Just finished crying.   Dave Barry
• A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that works.
• A wonderful discovery, psychoanalysis. Makes quite simple people feel they’re complex. S.N. Behrman
• The universe is simple; it’s the explanation that’s complex. Woody Allen
• They say golf is like life, but don’t believe them; golf is more complicated than that. Gardner Dickinson
• It is a simple task to make things complex, but a complex task to make them simple. Meyers Law
• Some problems are so complex that you have to be highly intelligent and well informed just to be undecided about them. Dr. Laurence J. Peter
• The simple explanation always follows the complex solution. Lunsford’s Rule of Scientific Endeavor
• An easily understood, workable falsehood is more useful than a complex, incomprehensible truth. Thumb’s Second Postulate
• For every complex problem, there is a solution that is clear, simple, and wrong. Mencken’s Law
• A complex system that works is invariably found to have evolved from a simple system that works. Murphy’s Law

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