Christoph Martin Wieland

Less is often more.

Christoph Martin Wieland (September 5 1733 – January 20 1813) was a German poet, dramatist and translator, best known for his Oberon and other romances on medieval or oriental subjects.

Sourced

• Ein Wahn, der mich beglückt,
  Ist eine Wahrheit werth, die mich zu Boden drückt.
  • An illusion which makes me happy is worth a verity which drags me to the ground.
  • Idris, ein heroisch-comisches Gedicht, Song 3, line 79 (1768); translation from Harry T. Reis and Caryl E. Rusbult (eds.) Close Relationships (New York: Psychology Press, 2004) p. 321.

• Und minder ist oft mehr, wie Lessings Prinz uns lehrt.
  • And less is often more, as Lessing's Prince teaches us.
  • "Neujahrswunsch", in Der Teutsche Merkur (January 1774) p. 4; translation from The Quote…Unquote Newsletter (October 1997) p. 3.
  • The phrase "Less is more" was later used by Robert Browning, and by Mies van der Rohe.

• Noch einmahl sattelt mir den Hippogryfen, ihr Musen,
  Zum Ritt ins alte romantische Land!
  • Saddle the Hippogriffs, ye Muses nine,
    And straight we'll ride to the land of old Romance.
  • Oberon, Song 1, st. 1 (1780) [1]; translation from Frederick Metcalfe History of German Literature (London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans and Roberts, 1858) p. 109.

• Nichts halb zu thun ist edler Geister Art.
  • To do nothing by halves is the way of noble spirits.
  • Oberon, Song 5, st. 30 [2]; translation from A. B. Faust (ed.) Oberon (New York: F. S. Crofts, 1940) p. 326.