In being simple I advocate for having in life only what you actually need and then what you consider beautiful. How many of us have had the chance to sit down and actually declutter our lives and the environment we live in? one of the greatest pleasures in my life is actually sitting down every single day and making sure that I trash something from my store that I actually think I do not need anymore – be it a number in my phone book, an e-mail, some of my old clothes or even decide to discard an idea I have since failed to implement.
I believe it'd be nice 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, babies and sages, with an open heart; to study hard; to think quietly, act frankly, talk gently, await occasions, never hurry; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common things in our lives.
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. Look at the celebrated Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa, two people who identified simple causes in life and pursued them to perfection - clearly denying themselves the worldly pleasures that come with the modern world today.
The best things in life are the nearest : the breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of right just before you. Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life's plain, common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things in life.
I'd like to share my favorite fifteen timeless quotes on simplicity, I specifically like the ones by Lao Tzu and Winston Churchill.
- The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak. ~Hans Hofmann
- Simplicity is making the journey of this life with just baggage enough. ~Author Unknown
- Live simply that others might simply live. ~Elizabeth Seaton
- Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful. ~William Morris
- The greatest truths are the simplest: so likewise are the greatest men. ~Augustus William Hare
- 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
- 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
- I have a simple philosophy. Fill what's empty. Empty what's full. Scratch where it itches. - Alice Roosevelt
- How many things are there which I do not want. ~Socrates
- There is a master key to success with which no man can fail. Its name is simplicity ... reducing to the simplest possible terms every problem.Henri Deterding
- Simplicity, carried to an extreme, becomes elegance.- Jon Franklin
- All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: Love; freedom; justice; honor; duty; mercy; hope. - Winston Churchill
- The obvious is that which is never seen until someone expresses it simply.- Kahlil Gibran
- Eliminate physical clutter. More importantly, eliminate spiritual clutter. ~D.H. Mondfleur
- The fewer our wants, the nearer we resemble the gods.- Socrates
