Voluntary Simplicity

Some of the
Stepping Stones
in our philosophical path. . .

Perfection is reached, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing more to take away. - Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

The conventional view serves to protect us from the painful job of thinking. - John Kenneth Galbraith

Let me listen to me and not to them. - Gertrude Stein

The better life cannot be imposed from without - it must grow from within. - Mrs. Humphrey Ward

Don't let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do. - John Wooden

The greatest thing in the world is toknow how to belong to oneself. - Montaigne

The phrase "time is money" is an insult to time. - citibank (!)

All the truly deep people have at the core of their being the genius to be simple or to know how to seek simplicity - Martin E. Marty

He who owns little is little owned. - Henry David Thoreau

Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal. - (overheard)

The key to happiness is not to have what you want but to want what you have.

It may be consoling to imagine we could be serene, if only we could find the right tropical island, or inherit a bundle of money. But as the Greek philosophers at the foot of Acropolis kept pointing out, this is the sort of deception that prevents people from being serene in the first place. - (author unknown)

Affluence without simplicity is a giant trap. Every saint who ever lived, lived simply- not because he was holier, but because he was smarter. - Christian Science Monitor

Autonomy is the whole thing; it’s what unhappy people are missing. They have given the power to run their lives to other people. - Judith Guest

The truly efficient laborer will not crowd his day with work, but will saunter to his task, surrounded by a wide halo of ease and leisure, and then do what he loves best. - Thoreau

...we are robbed of that rare and wonderful satisfaction that comes with personal accomplishment. In [early times] nearly every single thing a person touched was the result of his own efforts. The cloth of his clothing, the meal on the table, the chair he sat in, and the floor he walked upon, all were made by the user. This is why those people had an extraordinary awareness of life.....It was this awareness of everything about them that made early American people so full of inner satisfaction, so grateful for life and all that went with it. -Eric Sloane

“ya gotta own your own days and name 'em....or else the years go by and none of them belong to you” - Murray Burns in A Thousand Clowns

Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once and a while, or the light won't come in - Alan Alda

You never really own something until you're able to give it away. - Bill Nichols

The cost of a thing is the amount of . . . life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run. - Thoreau

Sometimes the right way of doing things is the easiest, but people are so constructed that they put more trust in the hard way. - Janet Gillespie

Although there are real hazards in saying yes to life, they are inconsequential when compared to the regrets that come with saying “no” - Eda LeShan

If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. - Thoreau

Life is a festival only to the wise - Ralph Waldo Emerson

I always wanted to be somebody. I see now I should have been more specific. - Lily Tomlin

We all have obligations and duties toward our fellow men. But it does seem curious enough that in modern neurotic society, men’s energies are consumed in making a living and rarely in living itself. It takes a lot of courage for a man to declare, with clarity and simplicity, that the purpose of life is to enjoy it. - Lin Yutang

Nothing is enough to the man for whom enough is too little. - Epicurous

The best things in life are not things. - C. & J. Woods

Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes. - Thoreau

He is well-paid that is well-satisfied. - William Shakespeare

There is only one success - to be able to spend your life in your own way. - Christopher Morley

Meyers' Law--It is a simple task to make things complex, but a complex task to make things simple.

Any sufficiently advanced technology
is indistinguishable from magic. - Arthur C. Clarke

Please send us your favorite Quote on living the simple life (or for that matter any quote that changed the way you look at life). Please give credit to the original author and if you include your name after the author's we will note who sent it. See your stepping stones

Building the Simple Life
Stepping Stones Your Stepping Stones

Bricks and Mortar Links to other pages

Books on Voluntary Simplicity

Home

You can send e-mail to Clay and Judy
simplicity@word-works.com
Sunset Graphic

This page designed and maintained by Word Works
Please report any problems to Clay Woods