I saw this quote on a website for GridGain.

"A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away..." -- Antonine de Saint-Exupery

I think this quote is great because I personally feel it also applies to good systems architecture and software development as easily as it does to design. Just swap out designer with programmer or administrator and start cutting away the excess. Don't stop with the code you wrote or the system you built. Look at the OS, the bloated frameworks, and key pieces of software that run your applications. You'll be surprised at the results of cleaning all that up can do for your application performance and scalabilty. It can also have a positive effect on your wallet over time as well I'd say.