Gordian Knot

I am currently reviewing a very complex EDI system between my company and a customer/supplier. A number of the steps in the process strike me as unnecessary. I went looking for a quote to share with the team to help us all focus on keeping it as simple as possible. I settled on the first one. I snagged the others for personal consumption:

I wouldn't give a fig for the simplicity on this side of complexity; I would give my right arm for the simplicity on the far side of complexity. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.

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. Schumacker

Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity. ~ Charles Mingus

Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say let your affairs be as one, two, three and to a hundred or a thousand… We are happy in proportion to the things we can do without. ~ Henry David Thoreau

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. ~ Leonardo DaVinci

Frugality is one of the most beautiful and joyful words in the English language, and yet one that we are culturally cut off from understanding and enjoying. The consumption society has made us feel that happiness lies in having things, and has failed to teach us the happiness of not having things. ~ Elise Boulding

Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful. ~William Morris

We don't need to increase our goods nearly as much as we need to scale down our wants. Not wanting something is as good as possessing it. ~ Donald Horban

How many things are there which I do not want. ~ Socrates

Who is rich? He who rejoices in his portion. ~ The Talmud