21- Brief

One of the most beautiful things in the world, to me, are brief, simple statements that can sum up a whole basic truth. When I stare out my bus window, (or when I daydream in general), it’s what I do. The consolidation of a whole bunch of observations- into a single sentence- is strangely gorgeous to me.

Notable quotes, and even the laws of science and math- I admire them. I think summarizing many ideas into a single sentence is jut as difficult as formulating the ideas. I believe it’s an art. It requires careful construction. It’s also why Einstein was as famous as he was.

All of this is possible, I think, because of a twist on a universally recognized quote, “A picture is worth a thousand words”. Is this implying that words are worth less than pictures?

How about, “A word is worth a thousand pictures?”

How many pictures can you imagine when you see the word:

Sunset?

Yo-yo?

Lamp?

In Google Images, you type any ordinary word, and you receive an endless database of photos. Now do that with your mind.

Something is terrifically appealing about a brief, powerful set of a minimal amount of words. I don’t know what it is, but it almost makes it understandable why mathematicians would want to spend their lives deciphering formulas and theorems. It almost makes it understandable why we learn mathematics at all. “Learning math in school is useless now,” people say. But not all of it. Not the beautiful, brief statements we learn about. It also explains why quality > quantity, in a way.

Here’s a nice one:

If only there was one definition for “good”.

2 thoughts on “21- Brief

  1. I was going to talk about brevity but then you made me think about a definition of good. It annoys me when people try to say whatever they do is right. “Oh my clothes are the best” “Horror Movies are the best” BLAH BLAH BLAH. OPINION IS NOT FACT.The idea of what is good changes every year. UGH PEOPLE.

  2. Sometimes, the smaller IS the better. When you can apply your imagination into something so simple as one word, this is one of the many beauties that life offers to us. We need to use our brainpower in looking at the big picture. 🙂

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