“It is desirable that a man live in all respects so simply and preparedly that if an enemy take the town... he can walk out the gate empty-handed and without anxiety.”
― Henry David Thoreau, Walden
“Well, all I need is the air I breathe and a place to rest my head.”
― Hal Leonard Publishing Company, OneRepublic: Dreaming Out Loud
“Arranging a bowl of flowers in the morning sun can give a sense of quiet in a crowded day - like writing a poem, or saying a prayer.”
― Anne Morrow Lindbergh
“Forget about the money for a moment. Lose yourself in the wilderness, listen to the music of the softly blowing winds, feel the rain on your bare skin, let the mountains take the burden off your shoulders.”
― Kiran Bisht
“The simple life is an authentic life.”
― Kilroy J. Oldster, Dead Toad Scrolls
“The greatest life is the joy of contentment.”
― Lailah Gifty Akita
“Real luxury is not working like a maniac to take an expensive vacation--it is living a life you enjoy every day.”
― Kathy Gottberg, Rightsizing * a Smart Living 365 Guide to Reinventing Retirement
“When the living gets unburdened with needs and desires, the life becomes simple and easy to carry.”
― Shashi, Songs of the Mist
This next collection I especially like because they come from what we would think of as a more simple time, some over a century ago, yet just as fitting today, if not more so...
1948. Jackie French Koller. “There are two ways to be rich: One is by acquiring much, and the other is by desiring little.”
1947. Linda Breen Pierce. “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.”
1943. Tenzin Palmo. “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.”
1940s. Duane Elgin. “The intention of 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.”
1940s. Richard Foster. “We really must understand that the lust for affluence in contemporary society is psychotic. It is psychotic because it has completely lost touch with reality. We crave things we neither need nor enjoy.”
1899. Edwin Way Teale. “Reduce the complexity of life by eliminating the needless wants of life, and the labors of life reduce themselves.”
1886. Mies Van Der Rohe. “Less is more.”
1879. Will Rogers. “Too many people spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people they don’t like.”
1836. Anna C. Brackett. “We go on multiplying our conveniences only to multiply our cares. We increase our possessions only to the enlargement of our anxieties.”
1834. William Morris. “Have nothing in your homes that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.”
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