Fred Rogers Quotes

If somebody writes clearly, you can pretty much tell immediately if something is shallow or deep, whereas if they write with all this duckweed on the surface, you can't tell if the stream is one inch deep or a hundred fathoms.

Everything deep is also simple and can be reproduced simply as long as its reference to the whole truth is maintained. But what matters is not what is witty but what is true.

The water in a vessel is sparkling; the water in the sea is dark. The small truth has words which are clear; the great truth has great silence.

Truth is something which can't be told in a few words. Those who simplify the universe only reduce the expansion of its meaning.

Deep and simple are far, far more important than shallow and complicated and fancy.

Some movies are entirely too heavy, and some movies have no meat in them.

Simplicity before understanding is simplistic; simplicity after understanding is simple.

Simplicity is the outward sign and symbol of depth of thought.

Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things.

What is grand is necessarily obscure to weak men. That which can be made explicit to the idiot is not worth my care.

Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity.

Its smallness is not petty; on the contrary, it is profound.

There's depth in my comedy.

A wise man should so write (though in words understood by all men) that wise men only should be able to commend him.

It's not very hard to be clever. It's far harder to be simple, obvious, and meaningful.

Life is filigree work. What is written clearly is not worth much, it's the transparency that counts.

Mozart's seeming frothiness is just a light touch with very profound material. That's what I've found working on 'The Magic Flute.'

For me, I want to find the truth in the word and the character and the line.

The fact that something is actually understandable and relatable doesn't mean that it's unsophisticated or banal. It just means that it's crystal-clear. And if you can't explain it, that doesn't necessarily mean it's so brilliant that ordinary mortals can't fathom it. It might just mean that it makes no sense.

If it's simple simple, it's boring. We try for the idea that is so simple that it will make you think and rethink.

I'd rather not ever make anything overly simple just because I'm scared people won't get it.

Fact is richer than diction.

What is style? For many people, a very complicated way of saying very simple things. According to us, a very simple way of saying very complicated things.

Science is always simple and always profound. It is only the half-truths that are dangerous.

Anybody can make the simple complecated. Creativity is making the complecated simple.