quotations and passages on simplicity

Live simply that others
may simply live.

Elizabeth Seton

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams! 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

People must be able to cut
a knot, for everything cannot
be untied; they 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, they must be
able to simplify their
duties, their business,
and their lives.

Henri Frederic Amiel

Simplicity is an exact medium between too little and too much.

Sir Joshua Reynolds

The boy and girl going hand in hand through a meadow; the mother washing her baby;
the sweet simple things in life. We have almost lost track of them. On the one side,
we over-intellectualize everything; on the other hand, we are over-mechanized.
We can understand the danger of the atomic bomb, but the danger
of our misunderstanding the meaning of life is much more serious.

Edward Steichen

Everything should be made as simple
as possible. . . but not simpler.

Albert Einstein

Do you know the more I look into life, the more things it seems to me I can successfully lack--and continue to grow happier. How many kinds of food I do not need, or cooks to cook them, how much curious clothing or tailors to make it, how many books I have never read, and pictures that are not worthwhile! The farther I run, the more I feel like casting aside all such impediments--lest I fail to arrive at the far goal of my endeavor.

David Grayson

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In character, in manners, in style, in all things
the supreme excellence is simplicity.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

When one begins to practice simplicity, the ego is deprived
of the very strategy by which it sustains itself. Nothing will deflate
the ego more effectively than to be recognized for what it is.
It lives by pretension. It dies when the mask is torn away
and the stark reality is exposed to the gaze of others.
Simplicity also avails in braking the tyranny of things.
Ostentation, artificiality, ornamentation, pretentious style,
luxury--all require things. One requires few things to be
one's self, one's age, and one's moral, intellectual,
or spiritual stature. What one is does not depend on what one has.

Albert E. Day

When we are truly in this interior simplicity our whole appearance
is franker, more natural. This true simplicity. . . makes us conscious
of a certain openness, gentleness, innocence, gaiety, and serenity. O, how amiable
this simplicity is! Who will give it to me? I leave all for this. It is the pearl of the Gospel.

Francois Fenelon

How many undervalue the power of simplicity!
But it is the real key to the heart.

William Wordsworth

I believe the art of living consists not so much in complicating
simple things as in simplifying things that are not.

François Hertel

Simplicity is making the journey of this life
with just baggage enough.

Charles Dudley Warner

Simplicity, carried to an extreme, becomes elegance.

Jon Franklin

Living life fully doesn't mean having it all, going everywhere,
doing everything, and being all things to all people.
Many of us are beginning to see that too much is too much.

Elaine St. James

Year by year the complexities of this spinning world grow
more bewildering and so each year we need all the more
to seek peace and comfort in the joyful simplicities.

Woman's Home Companion (1935)

Possessions, outward success, publicity, luxury--
to me these have always been contemptible.
I assume that a simple and unassuming manner of life
is best for everyone, best for both the body and the mind.

Albert Einstein

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

Hans Hofmann

The obvious is that which is never seen until someone expresses it simply.

Khalil Gibran

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

Charles Mingus

It’s simple things, like a glowing sunset, the sound of a running stream
or the fresh smell in a meadow that cause us to pause and marvel
at the wonder of life, to contemplate its meaning and significance.
Who can hold an autumn leaf in their hand, or sift the warm white sand
on the beach, and not wonder at the Creator of it all?

Wendy Moore

You were trying to be simple for the sake of being simple. I wonder if
true simplicity is ever anything but a by-product. If we aim directly for it,
it eludes us; but if we are on fire with some great interest that absorbs
our lives to the uttermost, we forget ourselves into simplicity.
Everything falls into simple lines around us, like a worn garment.

David Grayson

In character, in manners, in style, in all things the supreme excellence is simplicity.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

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.

the Dalai Lama

Make room for yourself in your life by keeping it simple.

Stephen C. Paul

There is a majesty in simplicity.

Alexander Pope

It's possible to have too much in life. Too many clothes jade our appreciation
for new ones; too much money can put us out of touch with life; too much
free time can dull the edge of the soul. We need sometimes to come very near
the bone so that we can taste the marrow of life rather than its superfluities.

Joan Chittister

Prison life taught him how little one can get along with, and what extraordinary
spiritual freedom and peace such simplification can bring. I remember again,
ironically, that today more of us in the world have the luxury of choice
between simplicity and complication of life. And for the most part, we,
who could choose simplicity, choose complication.

Anne Morrow Lindbergh