Literary notes about parsimony (AI summary)
In literature, "parsimony" is deployed with varied nuance, ranging from an admirable commitment to simplicity and economy of thought to a pejorative depiction of stinginess and miserliness. It is sometimes celebrated as a principle that guides efficient scientific inquiry and elegant expression—as when it is portrayed as a tool to economize ideas and force [1][2]—while in other contexts it is sharply criticized for engendering injustice or punitive severity in governance and personal behavior [3][4]. Moreover, the term frequently colors character portraits, marking individuals whose reluctance to spend or yield, whether in wealth or emotion, leads to both accumulation and detrimental isolation [5][6][7][8]. This layered usage underscores parsimony’s dual capacity as both a practical and moral reference point within the literary canon.
- Science follows the law of parsimony; nature economizes force, science economizes ideas.
— from The Non-religion of the Future: A Sociological Study by Jean-Marie Guyau - No higher form of being than this can be needed, and so by the law of parsimony a hypothesis of any other must be excluded.
— from Know the Truth: A Critique on the Hamiltonian Theory of Limitation by Jesse Henry Jones - But in both these missions he experienced much vexation from the rigid, and, indeed, unjust parsimony of the Government.
— from Critical, Historical, and Miscellaneous Essays; Vol. 4 With a Memoir and Index by Macaulay, Thomas Babington Macaulay, Baron - The Master said, 'Extravagance leads to insubordination, and parsimony to meanness.
— from The Analects of Confucius (from the Chinese Classics) by Confucius - He has the crime of prodigality, and the wretchedness of parsimony.
— from Boswell's Life of Johnson by James Boswell - The first thing they noticed was the unmistakable parsimony and niggardliness of Semyon Ivanovitch.
— from White Nights and Other Stories by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - The parsimony which leads to accumulation has become almost as rare in republican as in monarchical governments.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith - The want of parsimony, in time of peace, imposes the necessity of contracting debt in time of war.
— from An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith
