Quotes on simplicity
As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness.
Thoreau, Henry David
You have succeeded in life when all you really want is only what you really need.
Howard, Vernon
To poke a wood fire is more solid enjoyment than almost anything else in the world.
Warner, Charles Dudley
Maybe a person's time would be as well spent raising food as raising money to buy food.
Clark, Frank A.
The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity.
Whitman, Walt
The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.
Hofmann, Hans
Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.
Confucius
The true Indian sets no price upon either his property or his labor. His generosity is limited only by his strength and ability. He regards it as an honor to be selected for difficult or dangerous service and would think it shameful to ask for any reward, saying rather: Let the person I serve express his thanks according to his own bringing up and his sense of honor.
Ohiyesa of the Santee Sioux
Our affluent society contains those of talent and insight who are driven to prefer poverty, to choose it, rather than submit to the desolation of an empty abundance.
Harrington, Michael
Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.
Morris, William
Simplicity is making the journey of this life with just baggage enough.
Unknown, Author
Anything simple always interests me.
Hockney, David
I go about looking at horses and cattle. They eat grass, make love, work when they have to, bear their young. I am sick with envy of them.
Anderson, Sherwood
Eliminate physical clutter. More importantly, eliminate spiritual clutter.
Mondfleur, D.H.
The best things in life are nearest: Breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of right just before you. Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life's plain, common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things in life.
Stevenson, Robert Louis
Material blessings, when they pay beyond the category of need, are weirdly fruitful of headache.
Wylie, Philip
Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.
Einstein, Albert
To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter... to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird's nest or a wildflower in spring - these are some of the rewards of the simple life.
Burroughs, John
Be content with what you have, rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.
Tzu, Lao
We don't need to increase our goods nearly as much as we need to scale down our wants. Not wanting something is as good as possessing it.
Horban, Donald
Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage - to move in the opposite direction.
Schumacker, E.F.
Frugality is one of the most beautiful and joyful words in the English language, and yet one that we are culturally cut off from understanding and enjoying. The consumption society has made us feel that happiness lies in having things, and has failed to teach us the happiness of not having things.
Boulding, Elise