Home > All Quotes > Living in Harmony > Simplifying
These quotes are part of the compilation Living in Harmony. Sections include: Foundation Building (Developing a Spiritual Life, Living Fully in Our Bodies, Inviting Nature into Our Lives), Mindful Living (Living Mindfully Each Day, Blooming into Ourselves, Simplifying, Living Out Our Inner Vision, Living Out Our Global Vision) and Living in Community.
Less is more. Robert Browning
I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures. Lao Tzu
I am learning...that a man can live profoundly without masses of things. Richard E. Byrd
How many undervalue the power of simplicity! But it is the real key to the heart. William Wordsworth
Simplicity of living, if deliberately chosen, implies a compassionate approach to life. It means that we are choosing to live our daily lives with some degree of conscious appreciation of the condition of the rest of the world. Duane Elgin
Live simply so that others may simply live. Mahatma Gandhi
Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand... Henry David Thoreau
Things which matter most must never be at the mercy of things which matter least. Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Our life is frittered away by detail. Henry David Thoreau
All the masters tell us that the reality of life - which our noisy waking consciousness prevents us from hearing - speaks to us chiefly in silence. Karlfried Graf Durckheim
Simple in actions and in thoughts, you return to the source of being. Lao Tzu
If water derives lucidity from stillness, how much more the faculties of the mind! Chuang Tzu
To have a quiet mind is to possess one's mind wholly... Hamilton Mabie
The quieter you become the more you can hear. Ram Dass
Silence is...the natural context from which we listen. Silence is also the natural context from which we speak. Cornelius Plantinga, Jr.
In the point of rest at the center of our being, we encounter a world where all things are at rest in the same way. Then a tree becomes a mystery, a cloud a revelation, each man a cosmos of whose riches we can only catch glimpses. The life of simplicity is simple, but it opens to us a book in which we never get beyond the first syllable. Dag Hammarskjold
The heart at rest sees a feast in everything. Hindi Proverb
If your mind isn't clouded by unnecessary things,
This is the best season of your life. Wu-Men
Voluntary simplicity involves both inner and outer condition. It means...sincerity and honesty within, as well as avoidance of exterior clutter...The degree of simplification is a matter for each individual to settle for himself. Richard Gregg
As long as you derive inner help and comfort from anything, you should keep it. If you were to give it up in a mood of self-sacrifice or out of a stern sense of duty, you would continue to want it back, and that unsatisfied want would make trouble for you. Only give up a thing when you want some other condition so much that the thing no longer has any attraction for you, or when it seems to interfere with that which is more greatly desired. Mahatma Gandhi
The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak. Hans Hofman
Simplicity is an exact medium between too little and too much. Sir Joshua Reynolds
Bringing simplicity into our lives requires that we discover the ways in which our consumption either supports or entangles our existence. Duane Elgin
Whatever we treasure for ourselves separates us from others; our possessions are our limitations. Rabindranath Tagore
Have nothing in your home that you do not know to be useful and believe to be beautiful. William Morris
In everything, love simplicity. Saint Francis de Sales
The greatness of nature can overwhelm the insignificant chatter by which we measure most of our days. If you have the wisdom and the courage to go to nature alone, the larger rhythms, the eternal hum, will make itself known all the sooner. When you have found it, it will always be there for you. The peace without will become the peace within, and you will be able to return to it in your heart wherever you find yourself. Kent Nerburn
The silence of nature is very real. It surrounds you... Ted Trueblood
See how nature - trees, flowers, grass - grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence... Mother Teresa
My heart is tuned to the quietness that the stillness of nature inspires. Hazrat Inayat Khan
Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their own freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like the leaves of Autumn. John Muir
Over all the hilltops
Silence,
Among the treetops
You feel hardly
A breath moving.
The birds fall silent in the woods.
Simply Wait! Soon
You too will be silent. Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
The birds have vanished down the sky.
Now the last cloud drains away.
We sit together, the mountain and me,
until only the mountain remains. Li Po
All real and wholesome enjoyments possible to man have been just as possible to him since first he was made of the earth... John Ruskin
...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 wild flower in spring - these are some of the rewards of the simple life. John Burroughs
The best things in life are free. English Proverb
Find ecstasy in life; the mere sense of living is joy enough. Emily Dickinson
"What do you like doing best in the world, Pooh? [asked Christopher Robin]...
"What I like best in the whole world is Me and Piglet going to see You, and You saying 'What about a little something?' and Me saying, 'Well, I shouldn't mind a little something, should you, Piglet,' and it being a hummy sort of day outside, and birds singing." A.A. Milne, from The House at Pooh Corner
There is enchantment right in front of you, waiting for you to notice. Janet Luhrs
We eat every day, and if we do it...with a focus and care it can be a wonderful thing. It changes the quality of your life. Alice Waters
What I love most is an abundance of simple food of perfect quality and staggering freshness, very simply and respectfully treated, tasting strongly of itself. Sybille Bedford
How good it is to eat fruit tasty and ripe from the tree and vegetables fresh and crisp from the field. Peace Pilgrim
Each tree
Laden with fairest fruit, that hung to th'eye
Tempting, stirr'd in me
Sudden appetite
To pluck and eat. John Milton
This cabbage, these carrots, these potatoes, these onions ... will soon become me. Such a tasty fact! Mike Garofalo
Taste the feast by Nature spread. Samuel Johnson
The family is one of nature's masterpieces. George Santayana
If the family were a container, it would be a nest, an enduring nest, loosely woven, expansive, and open. Letty Cottin Pegrebin
Feelings of worth can flourish only in an atmosphere where individual differences are appreciated, mistakes are tolerated, communication is open, and rules are flexible - the kind of atmosphere that is found in a nurturing family. Virginia Satir
Whether a biological family or an extended family of people attracted to each other based on heart resonance and mutual support, the word 'family' implies warmth, a place where the core feelings of the heart are nurtured. Doc Childre and Howard Martin
Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family. Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one. Jane Howard
Family, friends, community - these are the sources of the greatest love and joy we experience as humans... David Suzuki
The better part of one's life consists of his friendships. Abraham Lincoln
A true friend is the greatest of all blessings. Duc De La Rochefoucauld
Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive... Anais Nin
To have a friend is to have one of the sweetest gifts that life can bring; to be a friend is to have a solemn and tender education of soul from day to day. Amy Robertson Brown
A friend is one to whom one can pour out all the contents of one's heart, chaff and grain together, knowing that the gentlest of hands will take and sift it, keeping what is worth keeping, and, with the breath of kindness, blow the rest away. Arabian Proverb
The glory of friendship is...the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when he discovers that someone else believes in him and is willing to trust him. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Remember, No man is a failure who has friends. Clarence in It's a Wonderful Life
In all ranks of life the human heart yearns for the beautiful; and the beautiful things that God makes are his gift to all alike. Harriet Beecher Stowe
...for someone visiting earth for the first time, the real treasures here would all be free. The smell of a sunlit prairie, the taste of a cold cup of spring water, the crunch of trackless snow underfoot, these are some of the earth's supreme treasures. On intergalactic maps, if there are such things, the place where we live must surely be designated as a magical garden in space, a place of astounding beauty. Steve Van Matre
Joy in looking and comprehending is nature's most beautiful gift. Albert Einstein
Look. This is your world!...Look at the greatness of the whole thing. Look! Don't hesitate - look! Open your eyes. Don't blink, and look, look - look further. Chogyam Trungpa
Nature is painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty... John Ruskin
Animals do not tell us to be happy, never demand that we dwell in nature. Rather, often in their presence, we are happy, we do dwell in nature. On one level, their great gift falls away as nothing more than our permitting them to act as benefactors. But there is nothing matter-of-fact about this gift. The gift given by animals is precious: a guide back to balance. On that level the gift is the basis of a profound mystery. Jim Nollman
I once had a sparrow alight on my shoulder for a moment while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance than I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn. Henry David Thoreau
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 study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly;
to listen to stars and birds, babes and sages, with open heart;
to bear all cheerfully,
do all bravely,
await occasions,
hurry never;
in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious,
grow up through the common.
This is to be my symphony. William Ellery/Henry Channing
...a man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone. Henry David Thoreau
None is richer than he who simply has peace of mind. Maj Wambebe
The truly rich are those who enjoy what they have. Yiddish Proverb
The call to simplicity and freedom is a reminder that our worth comes not from the amount of our involvements, achievements, or possessions, but from the depth and care which we bring to each moment, place, and person in our lives. Richard A. Bower
The only wealth is life. Saint Francis of Assisi
The aim should be to obtain the maximum of well-being with the minimum of consumption. The cultivation and expansion of needs, is the antithesis of wisdom. It is also the antithesis of freedom and peace... E.F. Schumacher
Liberty exists in proportion to wholesome restraint. Daniel Webster
...more possessions than you actually need burden you...our possessions possess us when we keep them after they are no longer useful to us. Peace Pilgrim
Many a man thinks he is buying pleasure, when he is really selling himself to it. Benjamin Franklin
Can anything be more absurd than to make so much the more provision for life's journey, as there is less of that journey left. Cicero
...the cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run. Henry David Thoreau
Free men must live simple lives and have simple pleasures. William Morris
When you know who you are, you are free. Wangari Maathai
If you ask people what kinds of activities bring them pleasure, it's usually contact with nature, things that are creative, and relationships with people, and the things we do to live simply bring us all of those satisfactions. Jeanne Roy
Joy comes not through possession or ownership but through a wise and loving heart. Buddha
It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy, that makes happiness. Charles Haddon Spurgeon
It is those who have enough but not too much who are the happiest. Peace Pilgrim
...very little is needed to make a life happy. Marcus Aurelius
[Happiness's] fundamental meaning is a free breathing of the soul... Helen Keller
