Quotes About Simplicity

I have everything I thought was important and nothing that really is. -Lily Francone

She knew there were only small joys in life--the big ones were too complicated to be joys when you got all through--and once you realized that, it took a lot of the pressure off.

She should stay here with him, unorphan him with love's unorphaning, live wise and simple in a world monstrous enough for years of whores and death, and poems of whores and death, so monstrous how could one live in it at all? One had to build shelters. One had to make pockets and live inside them.

It was now possible to wake up in the morning and be amazed and grateful to be yet alive and living in a solid house, and to go to bed at night full of relief at having lived a commonplace and uneventful day.

We live, he [Gandhi] felt, not in order to feed, clothe, shelter and pamper the body; we provide for the body in order to live. Life begins after the needs of the body have been met, yet how many people ruin life for the sake of rich living. The soul, alas, needs a temporary abode, but a clean mud hut will do as well as a palace, indeed better, for when the physical absorbs the lion's share of a man's effort the spirit languishes, life loses content, and discontent appears.

Some folks want the lights of cities, the admiration of women, and the fame that comes with success. Me, I just want the trail unwinding ahead of me, the view from the top of the ridge, and the smell of a wood-smoke fire.

Need and desire have no connection,' I said. 'Many people desire things they do not need. Happiness can be measured by what one does not need, but often to see is to want.

It is a living. It is enough. I am free. The nights are long and quiet, the mornings cool and bright, I live with the sun, the moon, and the stars. The air is fresh where I am, and there is no one to hurry me or to demand this or that of me.

Need and desire have no connection," I said. "Many people desire things they do not need. Happiness can be measured by what one does not need, but often to see is to want.

staring out at the sunlit street. It was a whole lot simpler out

It was a life that had left him rich in experience, but poor in goods of the world. The experience was the hard-fisted experience of cold winters, dry ranges, and the dusty bitterness

Cuesta tan poco hacer feliz a un niño, que es lamentable que en el mundo, lleno de alegría y de objetos agradables, haya pequeños con caritas tristes, las manos vacías y los corazones apesadumbrados.

The thought that, insignificant as she was, she yet might do some good, made her very careful of her acts and words, and so anxious to keep head contented and face happy, that she forgot her clothes, and made others do the same. She did not know it, but that good old fashion of simplicity made the plain gowns pretty, and the grace of unconsciousness beautified their little wearer with the charm that makes girlhood sweetest to those who truly love and reverence it.

I've been so bothered with my property, that I'm tired of it, and don't mean to save up any more, but give it away as I go along, and then nobody will envy me, or want to steal it, and I shan't be suspecting folks and worrying about my old cash.

If rank and money come with love and virtue, also, I should accept them gratefully, and enjoy your good fortune, but I know, by experience, how much genuine happiness can be had in a plain little house, where the daily bread is earned, and in some privations give sweetness to the few pleasures. I am content to see Meg begin humbly, for if I am not mistaken, she will be rich in the possession of a good man's heart, and that is better than fortune.

I'm not ambitious for a splendid fortune, a fashionable position, or a great name for my girls. If rank and money come with love and virtue also, I should accept them gratefully, and enjoy your good fortune; but I know, by experience, how much genuine happiness can be had in a plain little house, where the daily bread is earned, and some privations give sweetness to the few pleasures.

I'm not ambitious for a splendid fortune, a fashionable position, or a great name for my girls. If rank and money come with love and virtue, also, I should accept them gratefully, and enjoy your good fortune, but I know, by experience, how much genuine happiness can be held in a plain little house, where the daily bread is earned, and some privations give sweetness to the few pleasures.

There was a good deal of laughing, and kissing, and explaining, in the simple, loving fashion which makes these home festivals so pleasant at the time, so sweet to remember long afterward, then all fell to work. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott

Miss Kate, though twenty, was dressed with a simplicity which American girls would do well to imitate

I never thought I should like to wash dishes, but I do, said Rose, as she sat in a boat after supper lazily rinsing plates in the sea, and rocking luxuriously as she wiped them.

Sé por experiencia propia que en un hogar sencillo, en el que se trabaja para ganar el pan, se puede ser muy feliz, y que sufrir pequeñas privaciones ayuda a valorar más lo que se tiene. No me importa que Meg lleve una vida sencilla porque, si no me equivoco, dispondrá de la mejor riqueza: el corazón de un hombre bueno. Y esa es la mejor de las fortunas.

but I know, by experience, how much genuine happiness can be had in a plain little house, where the daily bread is earned, and some privations give sweetness to the few pleasures.

every tree stood ready to send down its shower of red or yellow apples at the first shake. Everybody was there. Everybody laughed and sang, climbed up and tumbled down. Everybody declared that there never had been such a perfect day or such a jolly set to enjoy it, and everyone gave themselves up to the simple pleasures of the hour as freely as if there were no such things as care or sorrow in the world.

Don't you think, dear, that as these girls are used to such things, and the best we can do will be nothing new, that some simpler plan would be pleasanter to them, as a change if nothing more, and much better for us than buying or borrowing what we don't need, and attempting a style not in keeping with our circumstances?