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Quotations about Simplicity Related Quotes Clutter Consumerism Nature Thrift
The greatest step towards a life of simplicity is to learn to let go. ~Steve Maraboli Remember that in giving any reason at all for refusing, you lay some foundation for a future request. ~Arthur Helps, Essays Written in Intervals of Business, 1841 It would add very much to the pleasure of life and to its sanctity if we cultivated the habit of seeing what is beautiful and divine in ordinary things, though this is not easy, because our natural tendency is to think and talk most of what is extraordinary. Let there come a vivid flash of lightning, followed instantly by the roll of thunder and the crashing of hail, and we are deeply impressed by it; but how few of us comparatively think of God's goodness in the deep serene calmness of an autumn day, when the leaves, beautiful even in death, drop one by one under the splendours of the cloudy sky. ~Alfred Rowland, "The Clouds: God's Angels of the Sea," in The Sunday Magazine (London), 1884 People overestimate the pleasure they’ll get from having more stuff. This does not apply to new rose bushes, crayons, or yarn stashes. ~Dr. SunWolf, professorsunwolf.com Happiness is an occasional brief glance into how simple it all can be. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com The true Indian sets no price upon either his property or his labor. His generosity is limited only by his strength and ability. He regards it as an honor to be selected for difficult or dangerous service and would think it shameful to ask for any reward, saying rather: Let the person I serve express his thanks according to his own bringing up and his sense of honor. ~Ohiyesa of the Santee Sioux (Charles Alexander Eastman) The waste of life occasioned by trying to do too many things at once is appalling. ~Orison Marden The best things in life are not only free, but the line is shorter. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com I like people who don't need a lot on the outside because they know there's so much good on the inside. ~Terri Guillemets Who is rich? He who rejoices in his portion. ~The Talmud All goes back to the earth, and so I do not desire pride of excess or power, but the contentments made by men who have had little: the fisherman’s silence receiving the river’s grace, the gardener’s musing on rows.... ~Wendell Berry, "The Want of Peace" I've adjectived up my life so much I forgot how to be simple and plain and quiet. Be. Just be. ~Terri Guillemets In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness. ~Henry David Thoreau The simple joy of having just enough. ~Dr. SunWolf, 2015 tweet, professorsunwolf.com To those who complain of the complexity of modern life, he [Henry David Thoreau] might reply, "If you want inner peace find it in solitude, not speed, and if you would find yourself, look to the land from which you came and to which you go." ~Stewart Udall, The Quiet Crisis, 1963 You have succeeded in life when all you really want is only what you really need. ~Vernon Howard What a unique treasure are the things we have learned to live without, for no thief can take them from us. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com Since all the riches of this world May be gifts from the Devil and earthly kings, I should suspect that I worshipp’d the Devil If I thank’d my God for worldly things. ~William Blake, Gnomic Verses I am only reminded that this is an enormously wealthy and varied nation, yet also an insensitive and cruel and deadening one, and that to strive for recognition or wealth within it is a disquieting, unceasing labor that will not bring the best out of any man or woman. Better perhaps to seek the contentment of more humble work within the belly of the beast, to inhabit the Pascalian room, to chop your wood, haul your water; better perhaps to stay at home and grow your patch of garlic, and to dream in winter your subterranean dreams, which are always the same: of light, of warmth, and of liberation. ~Stanley Crawford, A Garlic Testament: Seasons on a Small New Mexico Farm, 1992 Life is amazingly good when it’s simple and amazingly simple when it’s good. ~Terri Guillemets Simplify, then add lightness. ~Colin Chapman Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb-nail. ~Henry David Thoreau The greatest truths are the simplest: so likewise are the greatest men. ~Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1827 Beware the barrenness of a busy life. ~Socrates 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, "Seeing," Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, 1974 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 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 Reduce the complexity of life by eliminating the needless wants of life, and the labors of life reduce themselves. ~Edwin Way Teale The goal of life: simple but not empty. ~Terri Guillemets 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 Each day, awakening, are we asked to paint the sky blue? Need we coax the sun to rise or flowers to bloom? Need we teach birds to sing, or children to laugh, or lovers to kiss? No, though we think the world imperfect, it surrounds us each day with its perfections. We are asked only to appreciate them, and to show appreciation by living in peaceful harmony amidst them. The Creator does not ask that we create a perfect world; He asks that we celebrate it. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com Prayer of the day: God, let the people of the world understand how they can embrace simplicity to save their lives. ~Terri Guillemets
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