Full Idea
The beautiful is that from which nothing can be taken away and to which nothing can be added but for the worse.
Gist of Idea
The beautiful is that from which nothing can be subtracted and to which nothing can be added
Source
Leon Battista Alberti (De Re Aedificatoria [1485]), quoted by Roger Scruton - Beauty: a very short introduction 9
Book Reference
Scruton,Roger: 'Beauty: A Very Short Introduction' [OUP 2011], p.162
A Reaction
Scruton rejects this Platonic tradition of beauty as organic wholeness, because you can't say how it would be 'worse' without invoking beauty, which makes it circular. Scruton appears to be correct.