Many famous quotes are actually abbreviations of what was actually said.
Einstein supposedly said:
imagination is more important than knowledge
but this seems to come from:
When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come close to the conclusion that the gift of imagination has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing absolute knowledge.
Einstein supposedly said:
everything should be as simple as possible, but no simpler
but this seems to come from:
It can scarcely be denied that the supreme goal of all theory is to make the irreducible basic elements as simple and as few as possible without having to surrender the adequate representation of a single datum of experience.