The London Lounge

"Don't try to be original. Be simple. Be good technically, and if there is something in you, it will come out. ” - Henri Matisse


Le Bateau

"The hidden harmony is better than the obvious." - Pablo Picasso



Las Meninas. After Velázquez

"Fraud"
Salvador Dali
(illustrations to Dante's "Divine Comedy" - le Malebolge)

Four ducks on a pond,
A grass-bank beyond,
A blue sky of spring,
White clouds on the wing;
What a little thing
To remember for years--
To remember with tears!


by William Allingham (1824-1889)

Tired with all these, for restful death I cry,
As, to behold desert a beggar born,
And needy nothing trimm'd in jollity,
And purest faith unhappily forsworn,
And guilded honour shamefully misplaced,
And maiden virtue rudely strumpeted,
And right perfection wrongfully disgraced,
And strength by limping sway disabled,
And art made tongue-tied by authority,
And folly doctor-like controlling skill,
And simple truth miscall'd simplicity,
And captive good attending captain ill:
Tired with all these, from these would I be gone,
Save that, to die, I leave my love alone.

(Sonnet LXVI, W. Shakespeare)

“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



Cheers!

Nameless_1 wrote:“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



Cheers!

I do see the main point (and agree with it); although the statement does, maybe, bring into question the meaning of "intelligent"; especially when, looking around, much of the nonsense in the world seems to be generated by idiots!

Quite (or rather) intelligent idiots, nevertheless, if you shall pardon the oxymoron.
What they are NOT, however - and perhaps that is what is implied - is wise...

Costi wrote:Quite (or rather) intelligent idiots, nevertheless, if you shall pardon the oxymoron.
What they are NOT, however - and perhaps that is what is implied - is wise...

I think that they are cunning, rather than 'intelligent'; simply because they are out to make what they can out of the mindless, lemming-like folly of the masses. Moreover, if we substitute 'cunning idiots', for 'intelligent idiots', we avoid the oxymoron - and, by a happy coincidence, fully describe the simple morons that they truly are.
NJS

Perhaps you are right, "intelligence" should remain a noble attribute...

Henri Matisse in the photo above is anything but simple. His choice of fabric is 'rather fast'.

It's the kind of fabric that likes to play with light: it looks happy in sunshine and sober in absence thereof. That's a pretty simple way of having (at least) two suits in one.
He displays the kind of simplicity that is the result of refinement, rather than of scarcity of substance. Simple, but not a simpleton.