The trouble with simple living is that, though it can be joyful, rich, and creative, it isn’t simple.  ~Doris Janzen Longacre

The waste of life occasioned by trying to do too many things at once is appalling.  ~Orison Marden

Frugality is one of the most beautiful and joyful words in the English language, and yet 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

If you cultivate a healthy poverty and simplicity, so that finding a penny will literally make your day, then, since the world is in fact planted in pennies, you have with your poverty bought a lifetime of days.  ~Annie Dillard, "Seeing," Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, 1974CTO

Since all the riches of this world
May be gifts from the Devil and earthly kings,
I should suspect that I worshipp’d the Devil
If I thank’d my God for worldly things.
~William Blake, Gnomic VersesOBM

In proportion as he simplifies his life, the laws of the universe will appear less complex, and solitude will not be solitude, nor poverty poverty, nor weakness weakness.  ~Henry David Thoreaucommonly misquoted as As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler. walden.org/Library/Quotations/The_Henry_D._Thoreau_Mis-Quotation_Page

More good has been accomplished by simple people seeking their own honest ends than by all the philanthropists in history.  ~Robert Brault, www.robertbrault.com

Anything simple always interests me.  ~David HockneyFD

Material blessings, when they pay beyond the category of need, are weirdly fruitful of headache.  ~Philip Wylie

The goal of life:  simple, but not empty. ~Terri Guillemets

We don’t need to increase our goods nearly as much as we need to scale down our wants.  Not wanting something is as good as possessing it.  ~Donald Horban

The greatest truths are the simplest: so likewise are the greatest men.  ~Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1827

The greatest step towards a life of simplicity is to learn to let go.  ~Steve Maraboli

You have succeeded in life when all you really want is only what you really need.  ~Vernon Howard

Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.  ~William MorrisCD

Maybe a person’s time would be as well spent raising food as raising money to buy food.  ~Frank A. Clark

Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent.  It takes a touch of genius – and a lot of courage – to move in the opposite direction.  ~E.F. Schumacher (Thanks, Arly)

Who is rich?  He who rejoices in his portion.  ~The Talmud

To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter… to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird’s nest or a wildflower in spring – these are some of the rewards of the simple life.  ~John Burroughs

People overestimate the pleasure they’ll get from having more stuff.  This does not apply to new rose bushes, crayons, or yarn stashes.  ~Dr. SunWolf, professorsunwolf.comtwitter.com/WabiSabiWhisper/status/4979090052

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

How many things are there which I do not want.  ~Socrates

To poke a wood fire is more solid enjoyment than almost anything else in the world.  ~Charles Dudley WarnerCUL

Live simply that others might simply live.  ~Elizabeth Ann Seton