"How can less be more?"

(And, if less IS more - think of how much MORE more is!)

Years ago, some of my co-workers and I were dicussing the idea of "less is more." The next day, I left this on the bulletin board:

"Less is more" is a phrase which possesses implications that serve to distance us, stylistically - and philosophically - from the heavily ornate (think Baroque) sensibilities that were once a cultural mainstay. The onset of so-called modernity provided, for many, an alternate reality to that mind-set.
While the phrase "less is more" may seem oxymoronic, in a rather liberal sense of the term it is merely an aesthetic judgement that deems the clean line and uncluttered style - or life-style, for that matter - to be the desired ideal.
At any rate, it must be noted that any personal aesthetic judgement is as purely subjective as the next.