Quotes About Simplicity

Simplicity and nonviolence are the basis of an economy of wellbeing, and such an economy must be localised.

Pure at heart: to be like a flower that blooms as gloriously, brilliantly in a secluded wild wood, not seen and praised.

He was endowed with the extraordinary powers of endurance characteristic of madmen and simpletons.

Lorsqu'une pensée est trop faible pour porter une expression simple, c'est la marque pour la rejeter

Without extraneous words or phrases or clauses, there will be room for implication.

Living in a fairly remote village one soon learns to accept that having a roof, a fire, some warm clothes and enough to eat are really the only material essentials for a comfortable life.

Our freedom can be measured by the number of things we can walk away from.

You have succeeded in life when all you really WANT is only what you really NEED.

Don't think that you must involve yourself with complex intellectual philosophies. Don't try to be profound or educated. That only wears you out. Just be simple. Let everyday life be your teacher.

In the afternoon, they stopped to eat on a rocky outcrop. Perry brushed a kiss on her cheek while she was chewing, and she learned that it was the loveliest thing to be kissed for no reason, even while chewing food. It brightened the woods, and the never sky, and everything.

The only difference between an extraordinary life and an ordinary one is the extraordinary pleasures you find in ordinary things.

I'd rather wear bare skin than raw silk any day.

Everything has its place. Let in only those things that are greatly desired, no more and no less. That's how to make sense of the world, and the only real way to achieve happiness.'

Waste lies not in the number of possessions but in the failure to enjoy them.

To be frugal means to have a high joy-to-stuff ratio. If you get one unit of joy for each material possession, that's frugal. But if you need ten possessions to even begin registering on the joy meter, you're missing the point of being alive.

Learn to choose quality of life over standard of living.

To let go of clutter, then, is not dearth (lack); it's lightening up and opening up space for something new to happen

Instead of a dark box billionaire, you are probably hoping to become a lighthearted, productive, free person who just happens to never have to worry about money again.

He who knows he has enough is rich.

Frugality is enjoying the virtue of getting good value for every minute of your life energy and from everything you have the use of.

We have devalued the price of the things we need most to survive on a daily basis yet overvalued many of the things we can live without.

As you take your eyes off the false prize (of more, better, and different stuff), you put them on the real prizes: friends, family, sharing, caring, learning, meeting challenges, intimacy, rest, and being present, connected, and respected. In other words, those best things in life that are free. Like all things natural, building this wealth takes time, attention, patience, and reciprocity (that volleying of giving and receiving that builds relationships).

You'll flatten your debt and develop a natural resistance to spending more than you have for things you don't want to impress people you don't like (to paraphrase Robert Quillen).

Passion, pain, what's at hand—these are doorways to finding a purpose beyond material acquisition.