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I was reading wikipedia page of Python, there I saw these lines:

Beautiful is better than ugly.
Explicit is better than implicit.
Simple is better than complex.
Complex is better than complicated.

I was reminded of a quote "Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler." by Albert Einstein.

My question is, did he really say this? Please provide original reference.

Oddthinking
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ABcDexter
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    Seems like most Einstein "quotes" end up not being something he said exactly. Einstein's like an inverse Hitler, in that Einstein is seen as the personification of intelligence rather than all that is bad. – Mark Rogers Jul 16 '16 at 22:11
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    "Most Einstein's quotes are apocryphical" - Shakespeare – Evargalo Aug 21 '23 at 08:24
  • The general sentiment, known as the "principle of parsimony", has been stated by numerous people, tracing back at least to the ancient Greek philosophers. (There's probably a cuneiform tablet somewhere with a similar message, we just haven't found it yet.) – Mark Aug 30 '23 at 02:35

1 Answers1

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Quoteinvestigator conducted an extensive inquiry into this, and, in short,

Einstein may have crafted this aphorism, but there is no direct evidence in his writings. He did express a similar idea in a lecture but not concisely.

The actual Einstein quote is:

It can scarcely be denied that the supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience.

"On the Method of Theoretical Physics" The Herbert Spencer Lecture, delivered at Oxford (10 June 1933)

sleske
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Scott Rollans
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    I find it ironic that he did express this idea, but not concisely. –  Jul 16 '16 at 12:46
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    The actual Einstein quote: "*It can scarcely be denied that the supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience.*" – GEdgar Jul 16 '16 at 14:50
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    @GEdgar: I took the liberty of adding your comment to the answer, hope that's ok. – sleske Aug 16 '23 at 09:36