From some network sources, we can find out that we owe the common phrase in our speech to the German propaganda Reichsmain. We checked whether Joseph Goebbels really put it into circulation.

The fact that the prominent figure of the Third Reich Paul Joseph Goebbels is the author of a winged phrase about genius, reports such resources as “Quotes of famous personalities", Quotesbox, Socratify.net, "Million status", LJ, "Picabu", "Zen" And some Printed publications. However, a number of other sites ("Pearls of thought", "Aphorismm.ru") attribute these words to Albert Einstein - in Russia they even release stationery With such an attribution. The reference to Einstein is also present in Russian translation Bestseller Robert Kiyosaki "Why are excellent students working on triceps, and good for the state."

Let's start with Albert Einstein. There is no such statement in the heritage of the famous scientist. Very often to him attributed Another phrase on the topic of simplicity: "Everything should be [stated] as simple as possible, but not easier." Our colleagues from the site Quote investigator They found out that this formula most likely goes back to the remark from the 1933 lecture: “It can hardly be denied that the highest goal of any theory is to make emptied basic elements as much as possible and as short as possible ...”

Another supposedly quote of Einstein, Popular In Russian: “Do you think everything is so simple? Yes, everything is simple. But it’s not at all like that ”has no sources in the physicist archive. But this and previous quote could cause the attribution of the phrase of interest to us to the great scientist due to their similarity with her.

It is impossible not to mention other figures who, throughout history, gave tribute to the simplicity, which, in general, naturally. So, the ancient Greek playwright Euripides He wrotethat "truth always has simple speeches." Leonardo da Vinci attributed The phrase “simplicity is the basis of sophistication”, although he did not say anything like this - only in his note books He admired the simplicity of things created by nature, and stated that human ingenuity is far from that. Finally, Lev Nikolaevich Tolstoy in the epilogue to the first part of the novel “War and Peace” by the lips of Pierre Bezukhov speaksthat "all thoughts that have huge consequences are always simple."

However, all these statements, albeit close in meaning, the formula “everything brilliant is simple”, do not literally coincide with her. Let's finally turn to the works of Joseph Goebbels - or rather, to one of them, which is most often mentioned in connection with the phrase of interest to us. On September 1, 1932, in the anti -Semitic and anti -communist newspaper Der Angriff ("Attack" - German) came out article Goebbels called "Council for the dictator and those who want to become them." There were twenty tips. And 17th in the original He looked So: “Alles Große ist einface und alles einface ist groß. Der Kleine Liebt Es, Seine Bedeutungslosigkeit Hinter der Komplikation ZU Verbergen. "

This point is most often in Russian Translated As “everything brilliant is simple, and everything is simple brilliant. Small people like to hide their insignificance behind complex things. ” However, strictly speaking, the word Große is translated as “big” or “great”, and not “brilliant”, which was reflected in English translation "Council" - the word Great is used there. Yes, the words “great” and “brilliant” are to some extent synonymous, so both translation options are acceptable. However, how is it that it is thanks to this article that Goebbels is not yet very famous in the USSR in 1932 in the Russian language, the expression “all ingenious simple” penetrated?

We see this phrase in the story of Jacob Okunev "Catastrophe"(1927), in the journal of an art essay"Our achievements"(1931), in the book of Mikhail Ippolitov-Ivanov"50 years of Russian music in my memoirs"And a number of other pre -war publications. In the option, “everything is great, everything is simple great” (like Goebbels), it is found in publications XIX century, where it is called the "saying of the sage." Note that the English -language versions of the winged phrase ("Genius Is Simple, EVERYTHING GREAT IS SIMPLE”) Are found in print publications until the 20th century, that is, Goebbels did not introduce this idiom into the English language.

Thus, there are no serious reasons to argue that the author of the phrase “everything brilliant is simple” is Joseph Goebbels. At the same time, a synonymous statement appears in one of its articles.