Quote of the day 10th August

There are a lot of versions of a famous quote about simple solutions to complex problems. And a lot of opinions about who said it.

My favourite version is

"For every complex problem there's an obvious solution which is simple, clear-cut, and wrong."

However, this is not the original. The Quote investigator website traced it back to this statement from a 1920 collection of essays by the American humorist H.L. Mencken:

"Explanations exist; they have existed for all time; there is always a well-known solution to every human problem—neat, plausible, and wrong." 

The quote is often attributed to other authors such as Mark Twain, though there is no evidence that any of them ever said or wrote it, and often appears in other forms such as










Whichever version you prefer, it is a useful warning.




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