Henry David Thoreau Quotes About Simplicity

• 

  Our life is frittered away by detail... simplify, simplify.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Life, Business, Simple

  Walden ch. 2 (1854)

• To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity and trust.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Love, Life, Trust

  Henry David Thoreau (1995). “Walden, Or, Life in the Woods”, p.9, Courier Corporation

• Every morning was a cheerful invitation to make my life of equal simplicity, and I may say innocence, with Nature herself.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Good Morning, Nature, Good Day

  Henry David Thoreau (2014). “Citizen Thoreau: Walden, Civil Disobedience, Life Without Principle, Slavery in Massachusetts, A Plea for Captain John Brown”, p.61, Graphic Arts Books

• 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

  Life, Peace, Simple

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Quotable Thoreau: An A to Z Glossary of Inspiring Quotations from Henry David Thoreau”, p.88, BookBaby

• I do believe in simplicity. It is astonishing as well as sad, how many trivial affairs even the wisest thinks he must attend to in a day; how singular an affair he thinks he must omit. When the mathematician would solve a difficult problem, he first frees the equation of all incumbrances, and reduces it to its simplest terms. So simplify the problem of life, distinguish the necessary and the real. Probe the earth to see where your main roots run.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Running, Real, Believe

  Henry David Thoreau, Jeffrey S. Cramer (2007). “I to Myself: An Annotated Selection from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau”, p.201, Yale University Press

• Wealth is the ability to fully experience life.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Life, Money, Wealth And Happiness

• 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.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Life, Positive, Simple

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “The Essential Thoreau”, p.11, Simon and Schuster

• If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined...

  Henry David Thoreau

  Inspirational, Life, Motivational

  "Walden". Book by Henry David Thoreau, 1854.

• However mean your life is, meet it and live it.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Life And Love, Inspirational Life, Mean

  Henry David Thoreau (2016). “Walden”, p.232, Xist Publishing

• Money is not required to buy one necessity of the soul.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Spiritual, Money, Simplicity

  Henry David Thoreau (2013). “Quotable Thoreau: An A to Z Glossary of Inspiring Quotations from Henry David Thoreau”, p.66, BookBaby

• I am struck by the simplicity of light in the atmosphere in the autumn, as if the earth absorbed none, and out of this profusion of dazzling light came the autumnal tints.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Autumn, Light, Simplicity

  Henry David Thoreau (1892). “Autumn: From the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau”

• Let your capital be simplicity and contentment.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Simplicity, Contentment

  Henry David Thoreau (2012). “Thoreau's Book of Quotations”, p.70, Courier Corporation

• Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!

  Henry David Thoreau

  Simplicity

  Henry David Thoreau (2006). “Thoreau and the Art of Life: Precepts and Principles”, p.74, Heron Dance Press

• Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb nail.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Simple, Two, Simplicity

  Henry David Thoreau (1882). “Walden”, p.144

• Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends... Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Simple, Clothes, Simplicity

  Henry David Thoreau (2009). “Walden”, p.212, Cosimo, Inc.

• We are happy in proportion to the things we can do without.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Simplicity, Less Is More, Proportion

• However mean your life is, meet it and live it; do not shun it and call it hard names. It is not so bad as you are.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Life, Courage, Mean

  Henry David Thoreau (2016). “Walden”, p.232, Xist Publishing

• Our life is frittered away by detail. An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers, or in extreme cases he may add his ten toes, and lump the rest. Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity!

  Henry David Thoreau

  Life, Men, Simplicity

  Henry David Thoreau (2006). “Thoreau and the Art of Life: Precepts and Principles”, p.74, Heron Dance Press

• Simplify, simplify, simplify.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Life, Wise, Philosophy

  Henry David Thoreau (1937). “The selected works of Thoreau”, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH)

• A simple and independent mind does not toil at the bidding of any prince.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Independent, Simple, Simplicity

  Henry David Thoreau (1882). “Walden”, p.92

• The savage lives simply through ignorance and idleness or laziness, but the philosopher lives simply through wisdom.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Ignorance, Simplicity, Savages

  Henry David Thoreau, David Gross (2007). “The Price of Freedom: Political Philosophy from Thoreau's Journals”, p.113, David M Gross

• To what end do I lead a simple life at all, pray? That I may teach others to simplify their lives? - and so all our lives be simplified merely, like an algebraic formula? Or not, rather, that I may make use of the ground I have cleared to live more worthily and profitably?

  Henry David Thoreau

  Simple, Simplicity, Use

  Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Portable Thoreau”, p.369, Penguin

• Simplicity is the law of nature for men as well as for flowers.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Flower, Men, Law

  Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Green Thoreau: America's First Environmentalist on Technology, Possessions, Livelihood, and More”, p.72, New World Library

• The rule is to carry as little as possible.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Simplicity, Littles

  Henry David Thoreau (2012). “The Green Thoreau: America's First Environmentalist on Technology, Possessions, Livelihood, and More”, p.72, New World Library

• As for the complex ways of living, I love them not, however much I practice them. In as many places as possible, I will get my feet down to the earth.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Practice, Feet, Simplicity

  Henry David Thoreau, Jeffrey S. Cramer (2007). “I to Myself: An Annotated Selection from the Journal of Henry D. Thoreau”, p.204, Yale University Press

You May Also Like:

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Walt Whitman

Margaret Fuller

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Leo Tolstoy

Herman Melville

Mahatma Gandhi