250 Simplicity Quotes: Timeless Lines on Simple Living

Less Is More: The Art of Owning Less

1. Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. — Attributed to Leonardo da Vinci
2. Less is more. — Ludwig Mies van der Rohe
3. Less, but better. — Dieter Rams
4. Good design is as little design as possible. — Dieter Rams
5. Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
6. Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious and adding the meaningful. — John Maeda
7. Simplicity boils down to two steps: identify the essential, eliminate the rest. — Leo Babauta
8. Minimalism is the intentional promotion of the things we most value and the removal of anything that distracts us from it. — Joshua Becker
9. You don’t need more space. You need less stuff. — Joshua Becker
10. Love people, use things. The opposite never works. — Joshua Fields Millburn
11. Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful. — William Morris
12. The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak. — Hans Hofmann
13. Edit your life frequently and ruthlessly. It’s your masterpiece after all. — Nathan W. Morris
14. If you don’t prioritize your life, someone else will. — Greg McKeown
15. Clarity about what matters provides clarity about what does not. — Cal Newport
16. The question of what you want to own is actually the question of how you want to live your life. — Marie Kondo
17. Keep only those things that speak to your heart. — Marie Kondo
18. Does it spark joy? — Marie Kondo
19. Out of clutter, find simplicity. — Attributed to Albert Einstein
20. Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and more complex. It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction. — Attributed to Albert Einstein
21. Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler. — Attributed to Albert Einstein
22. The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less. — Attributed to Socrates
23. He is richest who is content with the least. — Socrates
24. The greatest wealth is to live content with little. — Attributed to Plato
25. Better a little which is well done, than a great deal imperfectly. — Plato
26. It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly. — Bertrand Russell
27. To be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness. — Bertrand Russell
28. A happy life must be to a great extent a quiet life, for it is only in an atmosphere of quiet that true joy dares live. — Bertrand Russell
29. What a lot of things there are a man can do without! — Attributed to Socrates
30. The more you have, the more you are occupied. The less you have, the more free you are. — Attributed to Mother Teresa
31. Live simply so that others may simply live. — Attributed to Mahatma Gandhi
32. There is no greatness where there is not simplicity, goodness, and truth. — Leo Tolstoy
33. Simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance. — Coco Chanel
34. Elegance is refusal. — Coco Chanel
35. In character, in manner, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity. — Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
36. Simplicity is the glory of expression. — Walt Whitman
37. Beauty of style and harmony and grace and good rhythm depend on simplicity. — Plato
38. Simplicity is the most difficult thing to secure in this world; it is the last limit of experience and the last effort of genius. — George Sand
39. Simplicity is the final achievement. — Frédéric Chopin
40. The simplest things are often the truest. — Richard Bach
41. Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things. — Isaac Newton
42. Nature is pleased with simplicity. — Isaac Newton
43. Manifest plainness, embrace simplicity, reduce selfishness, have few desires. — Lao Tzu
44. He who is contented is rich. — Lao Tzu
45. I have just three things to teach: simplicity, patience, compassion. — Lao Tzu
46. When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everyone will respect you. — Lao Tzu
47. To the mind that is still, the whole universe surrenders. — Lao Tzu
48. Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished. — Lao Tzu
49. The art of being wise is the art of knowing what to overlook. — William James
50. Nothing is more simple than greatness; indeed, to be simple is to be great. — Ralph Waldo Emerson

The Simple Life: Slow Living Wisdom

1. Simplify, simplify. — Henry David Thoreau
2. As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler. — Henry David Thoreau
3. Our life is frittered away by detail. — Henry David Thoreau
4. A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone. — Henry David Thoreau
5. The cost of a thing is the amount of life which is required to be exchanged for it. — Henry David Thoreau
6. I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach. — Henry David Thoreau
7. If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. — Henry David Thoreau
8. Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth. — Henry David Thoreau
9. The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. — Henry David Thoreau
10. It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see. — Henry David Thoreau
11. An early-morning walk is a blessing for the whole day. — Henry David Thoreau
12. Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit. — Henry David Thoreau
13. Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads. — Henry David Thoreau
14. We need the tonic of wildness. — Henry David Thoreau
15. In wildness is the preservation of the world. — Henry David Thoreau
16. The simple things are also the most extraordinary things. — Paulo Coelho
17. It is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all. — Laura Ingalls Wilder
18. Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things. — Robert Brault
19. How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives. — Annie Dillard
20. Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better. — Attributed to Albert Einstein
21. I have nature and art and poetry, and if that is not enough, what is enough? — Vincent van Gogh
22. The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper. — W. B. Yeats
23. Never lose an opportunity of seeing anything beautiful. — Charles Kingsley
24. Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
25. Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
26. The invariable mark of wisdom is to see the miraculous in the common. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
27. The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
28. Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers. — William Wordsworth
29. Wisdom is oft-times nearer when we stoop than when we soar. — William Wordsworth
30. The child is father of the man. — William Wordsworth
31. We never understand how little we need in this world until we know the loss of it. — J. M. Barrie
32. Always try to be a little kinder than is necessary. — J. M. Barrie
33. The secret of happiness is not in doing what one likes, but in liking what one does. — J. M. Barrie
34. Never be in a hurry. Do everything quietly and in a calm spirit. — J. M. Barrie
35. Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves. — J. M. Barrie
36. God gave us memory so that we might have roses in December. — J. M. Barrie
37. Let no one who loves be unhappy, even love unreturned has its rainbow. — J. M. Barrie
38. Temper is a weapon that we hold by the blade. — J. M. Barrie
39. Life is a long lesson in humility. — J. M. Barrie
40. The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another. — J. M. Barrie
41. All children, except one, grow up. — J. M. Barrie
42. If you have it [love], you don’t need to have anything else. — J. M. Barrie
43. As soon as you can say what you think and not what some other person has thought for you, you are on the way to being a remarkable man. — J. M. Barrie
44. The reason birds can fly and we can’t is simply because they have perfect faith. — J. M. Barrie
45. Every time a child says, ‘I don’t believe in fairies,’ there is a fairy somewhere that falls down dead. — J. M. Barrie
46. Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else. — J. M. Barrie
47. We are all failures — at least the best of us are. — J. M. Barrie
48. Ambition — it is the last infirmity of noble minds. — J. M. Barrie
49. I’m not young enough to know everything. — J. M. Barrie
50. Courage is the thing. All goes if courage goes. — J. M. Barrie

A Clear, Calm Mind

1. Smile, breathe, and go slowly. — Thich Nhat Hanh
2. The present moment is the only time over which we have dominion. — Thich Nhat Hanh
3. Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet. — Thich Nhat Hanh
4. Because you are alive, everything is possible. — Thich Nhat Hanh
5. In the midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness inside of you. — Deepak Chopra
6. The quieter you become, the more you can hear. — Ram Dass
7. Be here now. — Ram Dass
8. The game is not about becoming somebody, it’s about becoming nobody. — Ram Dass
9. We’re fascinated by the words, but where we meet is in the silence behind them. — Ram Dass
10. Everything changes once we identify with being the witness to the story, instead of the actor in it. — Ram Dass
11. Our journey is about being more deeply involved in life, and yet less attached to it. — Ram Dass
12. Learn to watch your drama unfold while at the same time knowing you are more than your drama. — Ram Dass
13. The resistance to the unpleasant situation is the root of suffering. — Ram Dass
14. We are all affecting the world every moment, whether we mean to or not. — Ram Dass
15. Our whole spiritual transformation brings us to the point where we realize that in our own being we are enough. — Ram Dass
16. If you think you’re enlightened, go spend a week with your family. — Ram Dass
17. Calmness of mind is one of the beautiful jewels of wisdom. — James Allen
18. The more tranquil a man becomes, the greater is his success. — James Allen
19. The soul becomes dyed with the color of its thoughts. — Marcus Aurelius
20. The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts. — Marcus Aurelius
21. Our life is what our thoughts make it. — Marcus Aurelius
22. You have power over your mind — not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength. — Marcus Aurelius
23. Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one. — Marcus Aurelius
24. The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way. — Marcus Aurelius
25. If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it. — Marcus Aurelius
26. The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury. — Marcus Aurelius
27. When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love. — Marcus Aurelius
28. Accept the things to which fate binds you, and love the people with whom fate brings you together, but do so with all your heart. — Marcus Aurelius
29. He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe. — Marcus Aurelius
30. Confine yourself to the present. — Marcus Aurelius
31. Do every act of your life as though it were the last act of your life. — Marcus Aurelius
32. Each day provides its own gifts. — Marcus Aurelius
33. If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself, but to your estimate of it. — Marcus Aurelius
34. It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live. — Marcus Aurelius
35. Loss is nothing else but change, and change is Nature’s delight. — Marcus Aurelius
36. Never let the future disturb you. You will meet it, if you have to, with the same weapons of reason which today arm you against the present. — Marcus Aurelius
37. Nothing happens to any man that he is not formed by nature to bear. — Marcus Aurelius
38. Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears. — Marcus Aurelius
39. The first rule is to keep an untroubled spirit. The second is to look things in the face and know them for what they are. — Marcus Aurelius
40. The universe is transformation: life is opinion. — Marcus Aurelius
41. Where life is possible at all, a right life is possible. — Marcus Aurelius
42. Do not act as if thou wert going to live ten thousand years. — Marcus Aurelius
43. The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing. — Marcus Aurelius
44. Be like the promontory against which the waves continually break. — Marcus Aurelius
45. If someone is able to show me that what I think or do is not right, I will happily change. — Marcus Aurelius
46. Let not your mind run on what you lack as much as on what you have already. — Marcus Aurelius
47. Dig within. Within is the wellspring of Good; and it is always ready to bubble up, if you just dig. — Marcus Aurelius
48. The things you think about determine the quality of your mind. — Marcus Aurelius
49. Life is neither good or evil, but only a place for good and evil. — Marcus Aurelius
50. Men exist for the sake of one another. — Marcus Aurelius

Wisdom in Few Words

1. The unexamined life is not worth living. — Socrates
2. Know thyself. — Socrates
3. The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing. — Socrates
4. Let him who would move the world first move himself. — Socrates
5. The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear. — Socrates
6. The shortest and surest way to live with honor in the world, is to be in reality what we would appear to be. — Socrates
7. Worthless people live only to eat and drink; people of worth eat and drink only to live. — Socrates
8. Be slow to fall into friendship, but when you are in, continue firm and constant. — Socrates
9. The misuse of language induces evil in the soul. — Socrates
10. Employ your time in improving yourself by other men’s writings so that you shall come easily by what others have labored hard for. — Socrates
11. The really important thing is not to live, but to live well. — Socrates
12. Give me beauty in the inward soul; may the outward and the inward man be at one. — Socrates
13. The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance. — Socrates
14. Be as you wish to seem. — Socrates
15. Wisdom begins in wonder. — Attributed to Socrates
16. I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think. — Attributed to Socrates
17. He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have. — Attributed to Socrates
18. Strong minds discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, weak minds discuss people. — Attributed to Socrates
19. Prefer knowledge to wealth, for the one is transitory, the other perpetual. — Attributed to Socrates
20. Beware the barrenness of a busy life. — Attributed to Socrates
21. The first and greatest victory is to conquer yourself. — Plato
22. Courage is knowing what not to fear. — Plato
23. Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something. — Plato
24. Ignorance, the root and stem of all evil. — Plato
25. We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light. — Plato
26. At the touch of love everyone becomes a poet. — Plato
27. Music is a moral law. — Plato
28. Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination. — Plato
29. The beginning is the most important part of the work. — Plato
30. A good decision is based on knowledge and not on numbers. — Plato
31. Thinking: the talking of the soul with itself. — Plato
32. Human behavior flows from three main sources: desire, emotion, and knowledge. — Plato
33. Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws. — Plato
34. The excessive increase of anything causes a reaction in the opposite direction. — Plato
35. When men speak ill of thee, live so as nobody may believe them. — Plato
36. Necessity is the mother of invention. — Plato
37. We are twice armed if we fight with faith. — Plato
38. No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth. — Plato
39. Truth is the beginning of every good to the gods, and of every good to man. — Plato
40. The learning and knowledge that we have, is, at the most, but little compared with that of which we are ignorant. — Plato
41. Knowledge becomes evil if the aim be not virtuous. — Plato
42. The community which has neither poverty nor riches will always have the noblest principles. — Plato
43. Opinion is the medium between knowledge and ignorance. — Plato
44. No law or ordinance is mightier than understanding. — Plato
45. Justice means minding one’s own business and not meddling with other men’s concerns. — Plato
46. Love is the pursuit of the whole. — Plato
47. All the gold which is under or upon the earth is not enough to give in exchange for virtue. — Plato
48. The most virtuous are those who content themselves with being virtuous without seeking to appear so. — Plato
49. If a man neglects education, he walks lame to the end of his life. — Plato
50. The man who makes everything that leads to happiness depend upon himself, and not upon other men, has adopted the very best plan for living happily. — Plato

Simple Joys Worth Savoring

1. Happiness depends upon ourselves. — Aristotle
2. The energy of the mind is the essence of life. — Aristotle
3. Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work. — Aristotle
4. Well begun is half done. — Aristotle
5. Nature does nothing uselessly. — Aristotle
6. The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet. — Aristotle
7. The educated differ from the uneducated as much as the living differ from the dead. — Aristotle
8. The worst form of inequality is to try to make unequal things equal. — Aristotle
9. In poverty and other misfortunes of life, true friends are a sure refuge. — Aristotle
10. The antidote for fifty enemies is one friend. — Aristotle
11. Without friends, no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods. — Aristotle
12. A friend to all is a friend to none. — Aristotle
13. Misfortune shows those who are not really friends. — Aristotle
14. Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit. — Aristotle
15. Hope is a waking dream. — Aristotle
16. Dignity does not consist in possessing honors, but in deserving them. — Aristotle
17. Moral excellence comes about as a result of habit. — Aristotle
18. The law is reason, free from passion. — Aristotle
19. At his best, man is the noblest of all animals; separated from law and justice he is the worst. — Aristotle
20. Man is by nature a political animal. — Aristotle
21. The secret to humor is surprise. — Aristotle
22. Youth is easily deceived because it is quick to hope. — Aristotle
23. The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance. — Aristotle
24. The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival. — Aristotle
25. Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others. — Cicero
26. The life of the dead is placed in the memory of the living. — Cicero
27. While there’s life, there’s hope. — Cicero
28. Freedom is a possession of inestimable value. — Cicero
29. The shifts of fortune test the reliability of friends. — Cicero
30. Friendship improves happiness and abates misery, by the doubling of our joy and the dividing of our grief. — Cicero
31. A friend is, as it were, a second self. — Cicero
32. Nobody can give you wiser advice than yourself. — Cicero
33. The authority of those who teach is often an obstacle to those who want to learn. — Cicero
34. I criticize by creation, not by finding fault. — Cicero
35. It is not by muscle, speed, or physical dexterity that great things are achieved, but by reflection, force of character, and judgment. — Cicero
36. The function of wisdom is to discriminate between good and evil. — Cicero
37. Any man can make mistakes, but only an idiot persists in his error. — Cicero
38. To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. — Cicero
39. We are not born for ourselves alone. — Cicero
40. Nature has planted in our minds an insatiable longing to see the truth. — Cicero
41. Brevity is a great charm of eloquence. — Cicero
42. The wise are instructed by reason, average minds by experience, the stupid by necessity, and the brute by instinct. — Cicero
43. The pursuit, even of the best things, ought to be calm and tranquil. — Cicero
44. Live as brave men; and if fortune is adverse, front its blows with brave hearts. — Cicero
45. He only employs his passion who can make no use of his reason. — Cicero
46. Hatred is settled anger. — Cicero
47. The face is a picture of the mind with the eyes as its interpreter. — Cicero
48. True law is right reason in agreement with nature. — Cicero
49. The first duty of a man is the seeking after and the investigation of truth. — Cicero
50. What one has, one ought to use: and whatever he does, he should do with all his might. — Cicero

Editor’s Picks: The Very Best Simplicity Quotes

FAQs About Simplicity Quotes

What is the most famous simplicity quote?

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication,” widely attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, is the most quoted line on the subject. It captures the idea that stripping things down to their essence takes more mastery than piling on complexity.

What did Thoreau say about simplicity?

Henry David Thoreau made “Simplify, simplify” his mantra in Walden. He argued that our lives are frittered away by detail, and that a person is rich in proportion to the number of things they can afford to let alone.

What is a good short quote about simple living?

“Less is more,” coined by architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, is the shortest classic. For daily life, “Smile, breathe, and go slowly” by Thich Nhat Hanh is a gentle reminder many readers love.

How can simplicity improve my daily life?

Start small: clear one drawer, cancel one commitment, or take one quiet walk without your phone. As the quotes above show, less clutter — in your home, schedule, and mind — leaves more room for what you actually value.

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