Re: help with quotation: simplicity [ 2nd ]

["Don E. Z'Boray" <zboray@newbie.net>]

Robert Lopresti wrote:
> 
> Relying on the collective wisdom of the ring...
> 
> A friend of mine is trying to find a source for
> this quotation.  He thought it was William
> Blake but it didn't turn up in a book
> of WB quotations:
> 
> "The only simplicity I trust lies on the
> far side of complexity."
> 
In my previous send . . . 
	Well, Rob, to begin the attribution for the quotation
	should be made to Alfred North Whitehead, an entirely
	different Anglo-American philosopher, not to William Blake.
	It was Whitehead who said, "The only simplicity to be trusted
	is the simplicity that is on the far side of complexity."
	('Tis perhaps the reason it doesn't show up in 
	  WB quotation books  ;-)
But NO, NO, NO!  I find myself crying aloud!  It was not Whitehead!
It was Oliver Wendell Holmes!
Well, at least that's what Stephen R. Covey, the author of "The Seven
Habits of Highly Effective People" claims - but he doesn't favour us
with a reference to where or when OWH said or wrote it.  Neither does
Mr. Covey specify if it was the junior or the senior Oliver Wendell
Holmes who deserves the credit, if any.
It was the Rev. Richard John Neuhaus who attributed the quotation to
Alfred North Whitehead, btw.  He, too, fails to mention where or when
ANH said  or wrote it.  It may be of use to note that in his writings
and speeches, Rev. Neuhaus refers to this exact quotation and to ANH
as its author, time and time again (i.e., in different works by the
Reverand).
ANH, btw, co-authored the "Principia Mathematica" with Bertrand Russell,
1910 - 1913.
To research Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947), see: 	
http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/whitehead/
or
http://www.google.com/search?q=alfred+north+whitehead&lc=www&btnG=Google+Search
To research Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894), 19th century poet
and author in other genres, one could start with:
	http://eldred.ne.mediaone.net/owh/holmes.html
To research Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935), former Associate
Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Justice, one could begin with:  
	http://www.people.virginia.edu/~mmd5f/holmes.html
My own WAG is that the quotation is probably from a mathematician
and not a damned lawyer - even a truly great one.  But YMMV!  ;-)
atbty,
-- don  ;-)
don e. z'boray                    steven wright jumpstation
webmaster@newbie.net      http://newbie.net/JumpStations/StevenWright/