>"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler." >*— Albert Einstein* Attributed to William of Ockham, a 14th-century English philosopher and theologian, it is frequently cited as _Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem_. This translates as "Entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity", although Occam never used these exact words. The principle is sometimes paraphrased as "The simplest explanation is usually the best one." Also known as the **principle of parsimony** or the **law of parsimony**, this problem-solving principle suggests we search for explanations constructed with the smallest possible set of elements.