No more things should be presumed to exist than are absolutely necessary.
'Occams's Razor', an ancient philosophical principle often attributed to Occam but earlier in origin; not found in this form in his writings, though he frequently used similar expressions, e.g. Pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitate [Plurality should not be assumed unnecessarily] in 'Quodlibeta' (c.1324) no. 5, question 1, art. 2. J. C. Way (ed.) 'Opera Theologica' (1980) vol. 9, p. 476
