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Thursday, August 28, 2008

Quote

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1. Out of clutter, find simplicity.

2. From discord, find harmony.

3. In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.

- Albert Einstein
three rules of work


I doubt that Einstein meant that within clutter one finds simplicity, but it could be read that way. Not that I ever read this quote that way until just now. I think my cluttered mind is trying to play tricks on me.

The wording in #1 is interesting. It's the words "out of" that are quirky. For instance, notice that Einstein prefaces the beginning of rule #1 using "out of" but in rule #2 he uses "from." Would it make any difference if the two were switched?

It's not lost on me that the quote comes from the three rules of work, not the three rules of meditation, or the three rules of procrastination or recreation, or the three rules for hiring someone to clean up your life.
However, for me out of clutter, find simplicity is a deep thought that precedes the work.


2 comments:

Carlos Lorenzo said...

Whatever he meant by that he problably was right being Einstein and all. At least it worked for him on his scientific work. Perhaps he didn't applied the same principles in a philosophical way, that is, to himself. My mind is quite cluttered too. Better cluttered than simple though. In my opinion he meant that there is some order in chaos.

Lydia said...

Carlos,
You've undoubtedly hit on what Einstein meant, that there's some order in chaos. Hard to find in the chaos of my own clutter upstairs and in the storage unit, though.
Having a cluttered mind is the worse feeling. If I meditate regularly I find it really clears.
Thanks for stopping by this new blog of mine!