Parsimony Quotes

Parsimony is enough to make the master of the golden mines as poor as he that has nothing; for a man may be brought to a morsel of bread by parsimony as well as profusion. ~ Henry Home, Lord Kames

I would rather be a beggar and spend my money like a king, than be a king and spend money like a beggar. ~ Robert Green Ingersoll

There is nothing worse than being ashamed of parsimony or poverty. ~ Livy

My father died when I was two years old. But my mother was quite capable. She raised three children with his war pension which was peanuts. Yet we did not want for anything. We grew up with a certain parsimony, which is a nice thing. Then if life gives you more good, otherwise you get used to. I'm still thrifty. ~ Giulio Andreotti

All past governments degenerated and abused the powers given to them: Why would the proposed Congress be better than "myriads of publick bodies who have gone before them? It would be safer to give congress a more limited grant of revenue "adequate to all necessary purposes," and no more. "As the poverty of individuals prevents luxury," Symmes said, "so the poverty of publick bodies … prevents tyranny. A nation cannot, perhaps, do a more politick thing, than to supply the purse of its sovereign with that parsimony, which results from a sense of the labor it costs"

William Symmes, 1787
From Pauline Maier's book Ratification ~ William Symmes

If time is money, it seems moral to save time, above all one's own, and such parsimony is excused by consideration for others. One is straight-forward. ~ Theodor Adorno

The mentally disturbed do not employ the Principle of Scientific Parsimony: the most simple theory to explain a given set of facts. They shoot for the baroque. ~ Philip K. Dick

Capitals are increased by parsimony, and diminished by prodigalityand misconduct. By what a frugal man annually saves he not onlyaffords maintenance to an additional number of productive hands?but?he establishes as it were a perpetual fund for the maintenance of an equal number in all times to come. ~ Adam Smith

Economy is a distributive virtue, and consists not in saving but in selection. ~ Edmund Burke

Scientists often talk of parsimony (as in "the simplest explanation is probably correct," also known as Occam's razor), but we should not get seduced by the apparent elegance of argument from parsimony; this line of reasoning has failed in the past at least as many times as it has succeeded. For example, it is more parsimonious to assume that the sun goes around the Earth, that atoms at the smallest scale operate in accordance with the same rules that objects at larger scales follow, and that we perceive what is really out there. All of these positions were long defended by argument from parsimony, and they were all wrong. In my view, the argument from parsimony is really no argument at all – it typically functions only to shut down more interesting discussion. If history is any guide, it's never a good idea to assume that a scientific problem is cornered. ~ David Eagleman

Mere parsimony is not economy. Expense, and great expense, may be an essential part in true economy. ~ Edmund Burke

It really comes down to parsimony, economy of explanation. It is possible that your car engine is driven by psychokinetic energy, but if it looks like a petrol engine, smells like a petrol engine and performs exactly as well as a petrol engine, the sensible working hypothesis is that it is a petrol engine. ~ Richard Dawkins

With parsimony a little is sufficient; without it nothing is sufficient; but frugality makes a poor man rich. ~ Seneca The Younger