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materialism
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Live
simply that others
may simply live.
Elizabeth Seton |
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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 |
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Simplicity is
an exact medium between too little and too much.
Sir Joshua
Reynolds |
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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 |
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Everything
should be made as simple
as possible. . . but not simpler.
Albert
Einstein |
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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 |
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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 |
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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
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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 |
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How
many undervalue the power of simplicity!
But it is the real key to the heart.
William
Wordsworth |
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I believe the
art of living consists not so much in complicating
simple things as in
simplifying things that are not.
François Hertel
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Simplicity
is making the journey of this life
with just baggage enough.
Charles Dudley Warner
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Simplicity, carried to an
extreme, becomes elegance.
Jon Franklin |
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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 |
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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) |
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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 |
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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 |
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Making
the simple complicated is commonplace;
making the complicated simple, awesomely simple,
that's creativity.
Charles Mingus |
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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 |
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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 |
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In
character, in manners, in style, in all things the supreme excellence is
simplicity.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow |
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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 |
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for yourself in your life by keeping it simple.
Stephen C. Paul |
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There is a majesty in simplicity.
Alexander Pope |
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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 |
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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 |
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It is the
sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all.
Laura
Ingalls Wilder |
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Great people, like nature, use simple language.
Luc de Clapiers Vauvenargues |
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Frugality is one of
the most beautiful and joyful words in the English language,
and yet it is one that we are culturally cut off from understanding and
enjoying.
The consumption society has made us feel that happiness lies in having
things,
and has failed to teach us the happiness of not having things.
Elise Boulding |
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The
life of simplicity is simple, but it opens to us a book
in which we never get beyond the first syllable.
Dag Hammarskjöld |
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Two
great Kindle books from our site!
First,
the daily meditations from the first year are gathered
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have thousands of quotations that took over a decade to
pull together, all on your
own PC, Mac, or Kindle, to take with you wherever you go,
to read whenever you feel the need for inspiring thoughts. |
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