Simplifying Life Quotes

I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. These three are your greatest treasures.

Laozi

Inspirational, Motivational, Patience

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Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.

Lin Yutang

Motivational, Time, Art

"Pearls of Wisdom: A Harvest of Quotations From All Ages" by Jerome Agel and Walter D. Glanze, (p. 46), 1987.

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

Henry David Thoreau

Life, Business, Simple

Walden ch. 2 (1854)

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Nothing is more simple than greatness; indeed, to be simple is to be great.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Simple, Greatness, Simplicity

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1983). “Essays and Lectures”, p.100, Library of America

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Live simply so that others may simply live.

Mahatma Gandhi

Spiritual, Simple, Diversity

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Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.

Confucius

Inspirational, Life, Positive

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Manifest plainness, embrace simplicity, reduce selfishness, have few desires.

Laozi

Inspirational, Selfish, Simple

Tao-te Ching ch. 19 (translation byWing-Tsit Chan)

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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 M. Boulding

Happiness, Lying, Simple

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The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.

Lin Yutang

Letting Go, Wisdom, Simple

Lin Yutang (1937). “The Importance of Living”

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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.

Laozi

Life, Happiness, Spiritual

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Simplicity in character, in manners, in style; in all things the supreme excellence is simplicity.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Character, Perfection, Simplicity

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (2012). “Kavanagh (Annotated Edition)”, p.46, Jazzybee Verlag

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It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction.

Albert Einstein

Courage, Moving, Simple

"Small is Beautiful". The Radical Humanist, Vol. 37, No. 5, (p. 22), August 1973.

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Frugality is one of the most beautiful and joyous words in the language, and yet one that we are culturally cut off from understanding and enjoying.

Elise M. Boulding

Beautiful, Cutting, Simple

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The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.

Hans Hofmann

Inspirational, Business, Mean

1967 Search for the Real.

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That's been one of my mantras - focus and simplicity. Simple can be harder than complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple. But it's worth it in the end because once you get there, you can move mountains.

Steve Jobs

Change, Inspiring, Life Changing

"The 13 Most Memorable Quotes From Steve Jobs" by Dylan Love, www.businessinsider.com. October 5, 2011.

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Beauty of style and harmony and grace and good rhythm depend on Simplicity.

Plato

Beauty, Inspirational Life, Simple

Plato (2012). “The Republic and Other Works”, p.89, Anchor

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I once had a sparrow alight upon my shoulder for a moment, while I was hoeing in a village garden, and I felt that I was more distinguished by that circumstance that I should have been by any epaulet I could have worn.

Henry David Thoreau

Nature, Animal, Garden

'Walden' (1854) 'Winter Visitors'

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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, babes and sages, with open heart; to study hard; to think quietly, act frankly, talk gently, await occasions, hurry never; in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common - this is my symphony.

William Ellery Channing

Inspirational, Life, Happiness

William Ellery Channing, “My Symphony”

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To simplify complications is the first essential of success.

George Earle Buckle

Success, Writing, Plain And Simple

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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

Beautiful, Art, Block

Harry Persons Taber, Elbert Hubbard (1902). “The Philistine”

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Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.

Albert Einstein

Inspirational, Funny, Witty

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Purity and simplicity are the two wings with which man soars above the earth and all temporary nature.

Thomas a Kempis

Simple, Men, Wings

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The best things are nearest: breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of God 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 of life.

Robert Louis Stevenson

Life, Stars, Flower

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If your mind isn't clouded by unnecessary things, This is the best season of your life.

Wumen Huikai

Simple, Simplicity, Mind

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Simple can be harder than complex. You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple.

Steve Jobs

Change, Life Changing, Hard Work

"Steve Jobs quotes: the man in his own words", www.theguardian.com. October 6, 2011.

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