Quotes about Simplicity

When simplicity of character and the sovereignty of ideas is broken up by the prevalence of secondary desires, the desire of riches, of pleasure, of power, and of praise,—and duplicity and falsehood take place of simplicity and truth, the power over nature as an interpreter of the will, is in a degree lost; new imagery ceases to be created, and old words are perverted to stand for things which are not; a paper currency is employed, when there is no bullion in the vaults. In

If thou fill thy brain with Boston and New York, with fashion and covetousness, and wilt stimulate thy jaded senses with wine and French coffee, thou shalt find no radiance of wisdom in the lonely waste of the pinewoods.

Every item I add to my possessions is one more thing to think about, talk about, clean, repair, display, rearrange, and replace when it goes bad.

The tragedy with growing up is not that we lose childishness in its simplicity, but that we lose childlikeness in its sublimity.

When I grow up I want to be a little boy.

If you overspiritualize prayer, you are in danger of not doing it. Remember, prayer is simply talking to God, worshipping and praising Him, and being thankful at all times.

If you have wondered how to have peace, I can tell you that it will come if you will quit making a big deal about everything.

Consider the lilies of the field and learn thoroughly how they grow; they neither toil nor spin. Yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his magnificence (excellence, dignity, and grace) was not arrayed

I have learned that to be with those I like is enough

Smile. Have you ever noticed how easily puppies make human friends? Yet all they do is wag their tails and fall over.

I imagine Lent for you and for me as a great departure from the greedy, anxious antineighborliness of our economy, a great departure from our exclusionary politics that fears the other, a great departure from self-indulgent consumerism that devours creation. And then an arrival in a new neighborhood, because it is a gift to be simple, it is a gift to be free; it is a gift to come down where we ought to be.

I come into the peace of wild thingswho do not tax their lives with forethoughtof grief.