70 Simple Living Quotes to Embrace the Joy of Slowing Down
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If you’re looking for simple living quotes that will motivate you to slow down and simplify life, here is a collection of 70 simple life quotes that will inspire you to get started.
Slowing down can be tough in this modern and hectic world, but there are so many wonderful reasons to do so.
These simple life quotes offer wisdom and inspiration on how to live simply, be more grateful, and practice simple living right now.
READ MORE: 120 Minimalist Quotes to Simply Life Your Best Life
Why read simple living quotes?
Living simply means letting go of everything that doesn’t serve you anymore. Many people fear that idea, as they are scared of being stripped of whatever they need the most. However, that’s not what living simply is about.
A simple life is about living with intention, and finding joy in the simplicity of everyday moments.
Imagine looking at a beautiful garden through an iron fence covered with vines: you can’t see the garden that well, can you? Simplifying is like removing those vines: it improves your vision, letting you focus on what’s essential and enjoy it.
It’s not always easy to simplify in the hustle and bustle of modern life, but it’s so worth it!
That’s why reading quotes about simple living is a fantastic way to stay inspired and encourage self-care. A simple and minimalist life can improve mental health by preventing you from getting overwhelmed – by clutter, toxic people, financial problems, and more.
You can find out more about the benefits of a simple, minimalist lifestyle in this post here.
Simple Living Quotes
In order to inspire you to live more simply, here is a collection of the best simple life quotes.
Of course, always follow your own judgment when it comes to simplifying your own life – there are no fixed rules!
Feel free to write down your favorite quotes about living a simple life or you can pin this post to Pinterest to remember and come back to later. Whatever it takes to keep you inspired to simplify.
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1. “The greatest wealth is a poverty of desires.” ― Seneca
2. “The simplest things are overlooked. And yet, it is the simplest things that are the most essential.” ― Thomas Lloyd Qualls
3. “My new deliberate and slower pace has created a higher quality in my experiences.” ― Lisa J. Shultz
4. “To realise the soothing power of simple life is to find the secret of happiness!” ― Mehmet Murat Ildan
5. “Don’t make your life complicated, live simply.” ― MJ Jabican
6. “The world is a place where the extraordinary can sit beside the ordinary with the thinnest of boundaries.” — Jodi Picoult
7. “The simple things are also the most extraordinary things, and only the wise can see them.” — Paulo Coelho
8. “Childhood means simplicity. Look at the world with the child’s eye ― it is very beautiful.” ― Kailash Satyarthi
9. “Up to one’s last breath, one may retain the simple joys of childhood (…). Right to the end, one may intoxicate one’s spirit with flowers, with beauty and with smiles.” — Eliphas Levi
10. “It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.” ― Seneca
11. “Manifest plainness, embrace simplicity, reduce selfishness, have few desires.” ― Lao Tzu
12. “The less I needed, the better I felt.” ― Charles Bukowski
13. “If all you did was look for things to appreciate you would live a joyous, spectacular life.” ― Abraham Hicks
14. “Reject the basic assumptions of civilization, especially the importance of material possessions.” ― Chuck Palahniuk
15. “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.” — William Morris
16. “I would rather have extra space and extra time than extra stuff.” — Francine Jay
17. “A simple life gives birth to more clarity, inner peace and meaningful relationships.” — Margo Vader
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18. “What a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.” ― Marcus Aurelius
19. “All I need is the air I breathe and a place to rest my head.” — One Republic
20. “A well-used minimum suffices for everything.” — Jules Verne
21. “The role of genius is not to complicate the simple, but to simplify the complicated.” — Criss Jami
22. “Out of clutter, find simplicity.” — Albert Einstein
23. “Simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance.” ― Coco Chanel
24. “Simplicity is the final achievement. After one has played a vast quantity of notes and more notes, it is simplicity that emerges as the crowning reward of art.” ― Frederic Chopin
25. “Clutter and confusion are failures of design, not attributes of information.” ― Edward Tuft
26. “It is always the simple that produces the marvelous.” — Amelia Barr
27. “The greatest ideas are the simplest.” — William Golding
28. “Instead of thinking I am losing something when I clear clutter, I dwell on what I might gain.” — Lisa J. Shultz
29. “The greatest step towards a life of simplicity is to learn to let go.” — Dr. Steve Maraboli
30. “Cry. Forgive. Learn. Move on. Let your tears water the seeds of your future happiness.” ― Dr. Steve Maraboli
31. “Knowing how and when to move on from one dream to another isn’t easy, but I knew it was time to start living a different dream. Letting go of a dream can be extremely hard, yes, but it’s also liberating.” — Bart Knaggs
32. “One of the most courageous decisions you’ll ever make is to finally let go of what is hurting your heart and soul.” — Brigitte Nicole
33. “Once we give up being attached to the physical possessions, we find the time and freedom to follow bigger dreams.” — Joshua Becker
34. “Clutter isn’t just the stuff in your closet, it’s anything that gets between you and the life that you want to be living.” — Peter Walsh
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35. “Clutter is the physical manifestation of unmade decisions fueled by procrastination.” — Christina Scalise
36. “Clutter is nothing more than postponed decisions.” — Barbara Hemphill
37. “You can’t reach for anything new if your hands are full of yesterday’s clutter.” — Louise Smith
38. “ ‘Later’ is the best friend of clutter.” — Peter Walsh
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39. “Most big transformations come about from the hundreds of tiny, almost imperceptible, steps we take along the way.” — Lori Gottlieb
40. “Saying yes to happiness means learning to say no to the things and people that stress you out.” ― Thema Davis
41. “Simplify: say no to the good so you can say yes to the best.” ― Unknown
42. “We should be choosing what we keep ― not what we get rid of.” — Marie Kondo
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43. “Make life simpler: missing someone? Call them. Want to understand? Ask questions. Want to be heard? Speak clearly. Object to something? Say no. Like something? Say so. Want something? Ask. Feel hurt? Tell them. Feel happy? Share it. Love someone? Tell them. When you need to communicate, don’t rely on telepathy.” — Ralph Smart
44. “I had bought things to tell people a story about who I was, or at least who I wanted them to think I was. By getting rid of those items I was taking back control of who I really was.” ― Michelle McGagh
45. “So why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me.” ― J. K. Rowling
46. “One does not accumulate but eliminate. It is not daily increase but daily decrease. The height of cultivation always runs to simplicity.” — Bruce Lee
47. “Authenticity is the highest state of being that one can achieve. In the years to come, authenticity will become the replacement for enlightenment as the true goal of spiritual practice and more than that, the true goal of life itself.” — Teal Swan
48. “I feel that the simplicity of life is just being yourself.” ― Bobby Brown
49. “Reduce the complexity of life by eliminating the needless wants of life, and the labors of life reduce themselves.” — Edwin Way Teale
50. “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
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51. “You’re better off not giving the small things more time than they deserve.” ― Marcus Aurelius
52. “The numerous choices you have around yourself are often superficial; they don’t matter. The art lies in doing more with less.” ― Vishal Ostwal
53. “Draw the art you want to see, start the business you want to run, play the music you want to hear, write the books you want to read, build the products you want to use – do the work you want to see done.” — Austin Kleon
54. “Simplicity boils down to 2 things: identify the essential & eliminate the rest.” — Leo Babauta
55. “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
56. “Knowledge is a process of piling up facts; wisdom lies in their simplification.” ― Martin H. Fischer
57. “Happiness cannot be travelled to, owned, earned, worn, or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude.” ― Denis Waitley
“58. To love a person is to see all their magic, and to remind them of it when they have forgotten.” — Anonymous
59. “One who hooks his fortune to ahimsa, the law of love, daily lessens the circle of destruction and to that extent promotes life and love.” — Mahatma Gandhi
60. “And still, after all this time, the sun never says to the earth, “You owe me.” ― Hafiz
61. “A minimalist by intent, I live a beautiful life with fewer things — simple, yet full.” ― Laurie Buchanan, PhD
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62. “Give yourself a gift of five minutes of contemplation in awe of everything you see around you. Go outside and turn your attention to the many miracles around you. This five-minutes-a-day regimen of appreciation and gratitude will help you focus your life in awe.” — Wayne Dyer
63. “Our mad materialism would be more forgivable if there was evidence that material goods and wealth do lead to happiness. But all the evidence fails to show this.” ― Steve Taylor PhD
64. “We all know that possessions do not equal happiness. It’s just that we’ve been told this lie for so long that we start to believe it, our hearts start to buy into it, and it begins to affect the way we live our lives.” ― Joshua Fields Millburn
65. “Our souls are not hungry for fame, comfort, wealth, or power. Our souls are hungry for meaning, for the sense that we have figured out how to live so that our lives matter.” ― Harold Kushner
66. “Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.” — Melody Beattie
67. “Minimalism is not the lack of something. It is simply the perfect amount of something.” ― Najahyia Chinchilla
68. “Simplicity is about subtracting the obvious and adding the meaningful.” ― John Maeda
69. “Take a step back today. Look at all those beautiful things you have.” ― Unknown
70. “You will attract everything that you require.” ― Rhonda Byrne
Final thoughts on these simple life quotes
Which quotes for a simple life did you like the most? I’d love to hear your feedback!
Improve your life by saying goodbye to the inessential so that you can welcome what truly matters into your life.
Simplifying won’t be easy, but it’s an art that everyone can master with a bit of patience!
If you are looking for more ideas, here is a list of ideas to further inspire, motivate, and help you fight the overwhelm so you can get up and start simplifying your life right now!
- 80 End of Year Quotes to Inspire You to Live Better
- Top 20 Slow Down Quotes to Relax and Enjoy Life
- 20 Ambition Quotes to Awaken Your True Potential
PIN THESE QUOTES ABOUT SIMPLE LIVING
