Quotes About Simplicity

Experiencing the present purely is being emptied and hollow; you catch the grace as a man fills his cup under a waterfall.

This is what I had come for, just this, and nothing more. A fling of leafy motion on the cliffs, the assault of real things, living and still, with shapes and powers under the sky- this is my city, my culture, and all the world I need.

The sense impressions of one-celled animals are not edited for the brain: 'This is philosophically interesting in a rather mournful way, since it means that only the simplest animals perceive the universe as it is (21).

It is dire poverty indeed when a man is so malnourished and fatigued that he won't stoop to pick up a penny. But if you cultivate a healthy poverty and simplicity, so that finding a penny will literally make your day, then, since the world is in fact planted in pennies, you have with your poverty bought a lifetime of days. It is that simple. What you see is what you get.

it is everlastingly funny that the proud, metaphysically ambitious, clamoring mind will hush if you give it an egg.

La naturaleza, al menos, no necesitaba de operaciones para ser bella. Simplemente lo era.

Even then, her mind had started to change, realizing that nature didn't need an operation to make it beautiful, it just was.

She lived her life believing in the power of simplicity. Whether it had to do with fashion, work or relationships, she used to say, Boil it all down to what counts the most: What is the essence of what you are trying to do, what is the most important thing? Things only get complicated when you are trying to address too many issues.

Beauty doesn't ask for attention

No people can live more happy than the Indians did in times of peace...Their lives were a continual round of pleasures.

The poor have always walked and the desperate have always slept outside. We were neither, but we were still doing something that felt ancient and hard. Most Americans did not own a car until after World War Two, and traveling often meant walking out your front door and not stopping. [...] We walked around four hundred miles and most nights we were the only people in the world who knew where we were. There are many definitions of

The great thing about alpha was that it could be explained:

Commoners always use too many words when they speak.

Write like you talk. Often.

Leo Babauta's brilliant little book Zen Habits helps you think your way through this problem. His program is simple: Attempt to create only one significant work a year.

Organize your project, your life, and your organization around the minimum. What's the smallest market you can survive on?

Bullet points are not the point.

Make it easy to believe.

The smallest viable market is the focus that, ironically and delightfully, leads to your growth.

161. Chop Wood and Carry Water Layman Pang, more than a thousand years ago, wrote: My daily activities are not unusual, I'm just naturally in harmony with them. Grasping nothing, discarding nothing . . . Drawing water and chopping wood.

The wisdom of peasants shows itself in their ability to pretend that they are fools.

For the first time in her life Tomoe came to the realization that there are fools and fools. A man who loves others with an open-hearted simplicity, who trusts others, no matter who they are, even if he is deceived or even betrayed-- such a man in the present-day world is bound to be written off as a fool. And so he is. But not just an ordinary fool. He is a wonderful fool. He is a wonderful fool who will never allow the little light which he sheds along man's way to go out.

nothing helped tea. It simply was what it was, which was boiling hot and flavorless.

When you're in the wild, there's nothing to hide behind. No bars or credit cards or movie theatres or cell phones or credentials or security. You're just alone with yourself. You look around and lose yourself in the mountains, rivers, forests or tundra, but you can see nothing except for the chaos in your own mind. It is fucking terrifying and peaceful at the same time.