Perfection (in design) is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but rather when there is nothing more to take away.
-- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry -- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry[Here’s the immediate context in French: http://wikilivres.info/wiki/Terre_des_hommes/III and in English: http://books.google.com/books?id=Ep-h7MuxLiIC&lpg=PP1...]
« Il semble que la perfection soit atteinte non quand il n’y a plus rien à ajouter, mais quand il n’y a plus rien à retrancher. Au terme de son évolution, la machine se dissimule. »
or in the not-quite-literal translation by Galantière:
“In anything at all, perfection is finally attained not when there is no longer anything to add, but when there is no longer anything to take away, when a body has been stripped down to its nakedness”