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SIMPLICITY

 

Voluntary simplicity is helping people change their lives and collectively helping to create a better world.
-- Robert Alan Silverstein

 

A man must be able to cut a knot, for everything cannot be untied; he must know how to disengage what is essential from the detail in which it is enwrapped, for everything cannot be equally considered; in a word, he must be able to simplify his duties, his business and his life.
-- Henri Frederic Amiel

“The simplest things are often the truest.”
-- Richard Bach

It is the heart that makes a man rich. He is rich according to what he is, not according to what he has.
-- Henry Ward Beecher

We, who have so much, must do more to help those in need. And most of all, we must live simply, so that others may simply live.
-- Ed Begley, Jr.

* We do need a 'new economy,' but one that is founded on thrift and care, on saving and conserving, not on excess and waste. An economy based on waste is inherently and hopelessly violent, and war is its inevitable by-product. We need a peaceable economy."
~ Wendell Berry

So, friends, every day do something that won't compute. Love the Lord. Love the world. Work for nothing. Take all that you have and be poor. Love someone who does not deserve it. Denounce the government and embrace the flag. Hope to live in that free republic for which it stands.
~ Wendell Berry

* I relish simplicity as an all-comprehensive value.
-- Ela Bhatt

Simplicity is the essence of happiness.
-- Cedric Bledsoe

The way to happiness -- keep your heart free from hate, your mind free from worry, live simply, expect little, give much.
-- Carol Borges

My riches consist not in the extent of my possessions but in the fewness of my wants.
-- J. Botherton

 

* 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.
-- Elise Boulding

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.
-- Elise Boulding

Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.
-- Robert Brault

The best things in life aren't things.
-- Art Buchwald

 

 

 

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.
~ John Burroughs


To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not, rich; to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart; to study hard; to think quietly, act frankly, talk gently, await occasions, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common--this is my symphony.
-- William Henry Channing

The happiest heart that ever beat Was in some quiet breast That found the common daylight sweet, And left to Heaven the rest.
-- John V. Cheney

“Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art.”
-- Frederic Chopin

The art of contentment is the recognition that the most satisfying and the most dependably refreshing experiences of life lie not in great things but in little. The rarity of happiness among those who achieved much is evidence that achievement is not in itself the assurance of a happy life. The great, like the humble, may have to find their satisfaction in the same plain things.
-- Edgar A. Collard

Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.
-- Confucius

It all depends on whether you have things, or they have you.
-- Robert A. Cook
“If one's life is simple, contentment has to come. Simplicity is extremely important for happiness. Having few desires, feeling satisfied with what you have, is very vital: satisfaction with just enough food, clothing, and shelter to protect yourself from the elements. And finally, there is an intense delight in abandoning faulty states of mind and in cultivating helpful ones in meditation.”
- The Dalai Lama

 

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
-- Leonardo da Vinci

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.
-- Annie Dillard

 

Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.
-- Albert Einstein

I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best both for the body and the mind.
-- Albert Einstein

“Three Rules of Work: Out of clutter find simplicity; From discord find harmony; In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”
-- Albert Einstein

 

 

 

The intention of this way of life [voluntary simplicity] is not to dogmatically live with less. It's a more demanding intention of living with balance. This is a middle way that moves between the extremes of poverty and indulgence.
~ Duane Elgin

There's enough on this planet for everyone's needs but not for everyone's greed.
-- Mohandas K. Gandhi

* “Live simply so that others may simply live.”
-- Mohandas Gandhi

Man falls from the pursuit of the ideal of plan living and high thinking the moment he wants to multiply his daily wants. Man's happiness really lies in contentment.
-- Mohandas Gandhi

* There's enough on this planet for everyone's needs but not for everyone's greed.
~ Mohandas Gandhi

Simplicity, clarity, singleness: these are the attributes that give our lives power and vividness and joy.
-- Richard Halloway

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.
-- Michael Harrington

 

* "The future belongs to those who understand that doing more with less is compassionate, prosperous, and enduring, and thus more intelligent, even competitive."
~ Paul Hawken

Simplicity is indeed often the sign of truth and a criterion of beauty.
-- Mahlon Hoagland

The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.
-- Hans Hofmann

The world has to learn that the actual pleasure derived from material things is of rather low quality on the whole and less even in quantity than it looks to those who have not tried it.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes

I have come to terms with the future. From this day onward I will walk easy on the earth. Plant trees. Kill no living things. Live in harmony with all creatures. I will restore the earth where I am. Use no more of its resources than I need. And listen, listen to what it is telling me.
-- M.J. Slim Hooey

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.
-- Donald Horban

Materialism is the only form of distraction from true bliss.
-- Doug Horton

You have succeeded in life when all you really want is only what you really need.
-- Vernon Howard

The sculptor produces the beautiful statue by chipping away such parts of the marble block as are not needed - it is a process of elimination.
-- Elbert Hubbard

The wealth of a soul is measured by how much it can feel; its poverty by how little.
-- W. R. Inge

Voluntary simplicity means going fewer places in one day rather than more, seeing less so I can see more, doing less so I can do more, acquiring less so I can have more.
-- John Kabat-Zinn

The little things? The little moments? They aren't little.
-- John Kabat-Zinn

Purity and simplicity are the two wings with which man soars above the earth and all temporary nature.
-- Thomas a Kempis

Nature uses as little as possible of anything.
-- Johannes Keppler

Teach us delight in the simple things,
And mirth that has no bitter springs;
Forgiveness free of evil done,
And love to all men beneath the sun.
-- Rudyard Kipling

To know you have enough is to be rich.
-- Lao-Tzu, Tao Te Ching

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.
-- Lao Tzu

Manifest plainness, Embrace simplicity, Reduce selfishness, Have few desires.
-- Lao-Tzu, Tao Te Ching

I have learned by some experience, by many examples, and by the writings of countless others before me, also occupied in the search, that certain environments, certain modes of life, certain rules of conduct are more conducive to inner and outer harmony than others. There are, in fact, certain roads that one may follow. Simplification of life is one of them.
-- Ann Morrow Lindbergh (Gift from the Sea)

The trouble with simple living is that, though it can be joyful, rich, and creative, it isn't simple.
-- Doris Janzen Longacre

“In character, in manner, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity.”
-- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that's creativity.
-- Charles Mingus

Eliminate physical clutter. More importantly, eliminate spiritual clutter.
--D.H. Mondfleur

You can't force simplicity; but you can invite it in by finding as much richness as possible in the few things at hand. Simplicity doesn't mean meagerness but rather a certain kind of richness, the fullness that appears when we stop stuffing the world with things.
-- Thomas Moore

 
The ordinary arts we practice every day at home are of more importance to the soul than their simplicity might suggest.
Thomas More

Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.
-- William Morris

 

One of the advantages of being born in an affluent society is that if one has any intelligence at all, one will realize that having more and more won't solve the problem, and happiness does not lie in possessions, or even relationships: The answer lies within ourselves. If we can't find peace and happiness there, it's not going to come from the outside.
-- Tenzin Palmo

 

Simplicity involves unburdening your life, and living more lightly with fewer distractions that interfere with a high quality life, as defined uniquely by each individual. You will find people living simply in large cities, rural areas and everything in between.
-- Linda Breen Pierce

The day, water, sun, moon, night -- I do not have to purchase these things with money.
-- Plautus

Simplicity is the nature of great souls.
-- Papa Ramadas

 

Too many people spend money they haven't earned, to buy things they don't want, to impress people they don't like.
-- Will Rogers

A little simplification would be the first step toward rational living, I think.
-- Eleanor Roosevelt

 

Who is rich? He who rejoices in his portion.
-- The Talmud

Reduce the complexity of life by eliminating the needless wants of life, and the labors of life reduce themselves.
-- Edwin Way Teale

 
“It’s not funny at all that we do all that advertising for children. Why is advertising for children allowed? What possible reason can there be for having those effing adverts on ITV for all this crap that’s made by poor people in poor countries that we sell our children who have too much?
-- Emma Thompson

Our life is frittered away by detail... Simplify, simplify, simplify! ... Simplicity of life and elevation of purpose.
-- Henry David Thoreau

* Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler.
-- Henry David Thoreau

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! Live the life you've imagined. 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.
-- Henry David Thoreau

"What's the use of a fine house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?"
-- Henry David Thoreau

Most of the luxuries, and many of the so-called comforts of life, are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind. With respect to luxuries and comforts, the wisest have even lived a more simple and meagre life than the poor.
-- Henry David Thoreau

“To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but to so love wisdom as to live according to its dictates a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity and trust.”
-- Henry David Thoreau

That man is richest whose pleasures are the cheapest.
-- Henry David Thoreau

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.
-- Henry David Thoreau

 

“There is no greatness where there is not simplicity, goodness, and truth”
-- Leo Tolstoy


For fast acting relief; try slowing down.
-- Lily Tomlin

Less is more.
-- Mies van der Rohe

Simplicity is making the journey of this life with just baggage enough.
-- Charles Dudley Warner (1829-1900)

 

Simplicity is the glory of expression
~ Walt Whitman

After you have exhausted what there is in business, politics, conviviality, and so on - have found that none of these finally satisfy, or permanently wear - what remains? Nature remains.
~ Walt Whitman

It is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all.
-- Laura Ingalls Wilder (Little House in the Ozarks by Hines)

I believe we would be happier to have a personal revolution in our individual lives and go back to simpler living and more direct thinking. It is the simple things of life that make living worthwhile, the sweet fundamental things such as love and duty, work and rest, and living close to nature. There are not hothouse blossoms that can compare in beauty and fragrance with my bouquet of wildflowers.
-- Laura Ingalls Wilder

The aspects of things that are most important to us are hidden because of their simplicity and familiarity.
-- Prof. Ludwig Wittgenstein

 

"Think simple" as my old master used to say - meaning reduce the whole of its parts into the simplest terms, getting back to first principles.”
-- Frank Lloyd Wright


Material blessings, when they pay beyond the category of need, are weirdly fruitful of headache.
-- Philip Wylie

Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.
-- Lin Yutang

 

SIMPLICITY
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Simplicity Day - July 12

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