#elegance

So if there is something on the planet that is worth living for, I'd better not miss it, because once you're dead, it's too late for regrets, and if you die by mistake, that is really, really dumb. ↗

— Muriel Barbery

#humor #irony #life #muriel-barbery #the-elegance-of-the-hedgehog

There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. The first method is far more difficult. ↗

— C.A.R. Hoare

#design

Elegance does not consist in putting on a new dress. ↗

— Coco Chanel

#does #dress #elegance #new #putting

Elegance is refusal. ↗

— Coco Chanel

#refusal

Elegance is not a dispensable luxury but a factor that decides between success and failure. ↗

— Edsger Dijkstra

#decides #dispensable #elegance #factor #failure

I feel that my environment reflects my belief in the grace and art and elegance of living simply. ↗

— Bell Hooks

#belief #elegance #environment #feel #grace

For us to deem a work of architecture elegant, it is hence not enough that it look simple: we must feel that the simplicity it displays has been hard won, that it flows from the resolution of demanding technical or natural predicament. Thus we call the Shaker staircase in Pleasant Hill elegant because we know--without ever having constructed one ourselves--that a staircase is a site complexity, and that combinations of treads, risers and banisters rarely approach the sober intelligibility of the Sharkers' work. We deem a modern Swiss house elegant because we not how seamlessly its windows have been joined to their concrete walls, and how neatly the usual clutter of construction has been resolved away. We admire starkly simple works that we intuit would, without immense effort, have appeared very complicated. (p 209) ↗

— Alain de Botton

#complexity #complicated #construction #design #elegance

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. ↗

— E.F. Schumacher

#elegance #genius #inspirational #simplicity #violence

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

#elegance #simple #simplicity #virtue #education

The elegance is as physical, as moral quality that has nothing common with the clothing. You can see a countrywoman more elegant than one so called elegant woman. ↗

— Karl Lagerfeld

#clothing #country #countrywoaman #designer #elegance