Quotes About Simplicity

Whatever simplicity I've achieved in writing, I think I owe most of it to Jean Renoir and Hemingway: simple, declarative sentences. I've read some very good writers, but the sentences were so long that I've forgotten what the point was.

I felt like my favorite writers have almost musical hooks in their work, whether it's poetry or a hook at the end of a chapter that makes you want to read the next one. And I think that my favorite writers definitely have something musical about what they do, in saying something so relatable and universal and so simple.

For me, Paul Simon has always been an incredible songwriter, as he writes very complicated songs that sound very simple, and he makes it look so easy when it's not.

James Taylor is the kind of person I always thought the word 'folksinger' referred to. He writes and sings songs that are reflections of his own life, and performs in them in his own style. All of his performances are marked by an eloquent simplicity.

Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts.

Hard writing makes easy reading.

Somebody once asked me what my theory of life was, and I said, 'Don't try.' That fits the writing, too. I don't try; I just type.

Good writing does not come from verbiage but from words.

The boy does well enough, said Vicente. A goose does not ask much of life, after all. No, she admitted. Those who ask much are more likely disappointed. We should all be as simple as the goose.

Another word for poverty of choice is innocence.

Outer order isn't a matter of having less or having more; it's a matter of wanting what we have.

Keep it simple' wasn't always the right response. Many things that boosted my happiness also added complexity to my life. Having children. Learning to post videos to my website. Going to an out-of-town wedding. Applied too broadly, my impulse to 'Keep it simple' would impoverish me. 'Life is barren enough surely with all her trappings,' warned Samuel Johnson, 'let us therefore by cautious how we strip her.

Rather than striving for a particular level of possessions—minimal or otherwise—it's helpful to think about getting rid of what's superfluous. Even people who prefer to own many possessions enjoy their surroundings more when they've purged everything that's not needed, used, or loved.

I was always telling myself, "Keep it simple." But as Albert Einstein pointed out, "Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.

Having less often leads us to use our things more often and with more enjoyment, because we're not fighting our way through a welter of unwanted stuff.

By getting rid of the things I don't use, don't need, or don't love, as well as the things that don't work, don't fit, or don't suit, I free my mind—and my shelves—for what I truly value. And that's true for most people.

Once I've cleared away the things I don't need, use, or love, my surroundings reveal to me, and to others, the things that matter most to me. Careful curation means that my space and my possessions reflect my truest identity.

If you need to buy things to store things, perhaps you have too many things.

Think about appearances. I wanted my apartment to be less cluttered, and also to look less cluttered.

It is easy to be heavy: hard to be light." —G. K. Chesterton What's

At some point in life the world's beauty becomes enough. You don't need to photograph, paint or even remember it. It is enough. —Toni Morrison, Tar Baby

Make it easy to do right and hard to go wrong.

Plainness was not necessarily simplicity," Frank Lloyd Wright cautioned. "Elimination, therefore, may be just as meaningless as elaboration, perhaps more often is so. To know what to leave out and what to put in; just where and just how, ah, that is to have been educated in knowledge of simplicity." My

It's hard to do even simple things well, and most things aren't simple. As