Date:  Mon, 28 Jul 1997 13:28:29 -0400
From:  Hamilothoris <shamilot[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]SUFFOLK.LIB.NY.US>
Subject: Re: "Less is more...

Alan Baragona wrote:
>
> Duane Campbell wrote:
> >
> > Who said, "Less is more." My instinct says Menken, but van der Rohe
is in
> > the running.
> >
> Believe it or not, my hardback Bartlett's attributes it to Robert
> Browning! "Andrea del Sarto," l. 78, with a cross reference to Hesiod:
> "Fools, they do not even know how much more is the half than the whole"
> ("Works and Days" l. 40). FWIW, I always associated it with Van der
> Rohe, not Mencken.
>
    In the Loeb Classic Library edition H. G. Evelynn-White continues
from the above with the following translation: "...nor what great
advantage there is in mallow and asphodel" [i.e. the poor man's fare, like
`bread and cheese'].
It is clear from the context of the passage that those who have more now
"the bribe-swallowing lords'(ibid. 1. 36) shall have the flowers of Hades
on their chest (see asphodel) while the poor man, who has only bread and
cheese, shall not have hidden from him the means of life. Thus, the saying
'work to live, not live to work' --or, in other words, an interest in the
pursuit of wealth precludes an interest in the pursuit of life.

Spiro H.