I love quotes and most of the time I find myself drawing inspiration from them.
There are hundreds of quotes from well-known people that denote or imply simplicity and minimalism and I pretty much like most of them.
For the sake of this post, I would like to share 10 of my most favorite.
Here they are:
1. “Simplicity involves unburdening your life, and living more lightly with fewer distractions that interfere with a high quality life, as defined uniquely by each individual.” – Linda Breen Pierce
Minimalism is subjective. Even though minimalism necessitates paring down, nobody can say what is enough for anyone. For instance, if you find joy and meaning in life from your coin collection, then having it in your house does not mean you cannot be a minimalist. Minimalism brings out who you are and removes everything that is not really you.
2. “Simplicity is complex. It's never simple to keep things simple. Simple solutions require the most advanced thinking.” – Richie Norton
Ironically, living a life of simplicity and minimalism is not always easy. There are perhaps many reasons why, but our human instinct to make things more complicated than what they really are is probably one of them. For example, when decorating a room, a natural reaction is to fill it with dozens of ornaments and furniture. But in reality having only a few, and only those with real purpose, beauty, and meaning is much better.
3. “Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” – Lao Tzu
Minimalism is gradual and not rushing. But it does not mean idleness or laziness or filling your days with pointless things. It is about doing only what you need to do. Everything that does not give purpose and meaning to life is scrapped out. The reason why people are so busy is because they tend to do things that they really should not be doing or that they can already delegate. Minimalism streamlines our everyday activities so we can accomplish them with less stress.
4. “There are two ways to be rich: One is by acquiring much, and the other is by desiring little.” – Jackie French Koller
Minimalism does not mean being poor or deprived. Wealth is subjective. One can have little money yet still feel very rich. In terms of actual money, the less stuff you have the more savings you can generate. When buying an $80 shirt on sale for only $50, you don't actually save $30, especially if you already have 401 shirts inside your closet still unworn. It means you unnecessarily spent $50.
5. “Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Minimalism is discovering life's essentials. When asked about his or her perfect day, most people would simply answer “a whole day of fun, relaxation, and being with the family.” Rare would someone hear a response involving a lot of complicated and tiring activities.
6. “Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.” – William Morris
Minimalism is accurate and knowing what you really want. The principle is simple and personal: if anything is not useful, beautiful, or joyful for you, then there is no sense in keeping it.
7. “The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.” – Hans Hofmann
Minimalism is about setting priorities. It is about eliminating the superfluous to focus on the essentials, which means it involved personal values and goals assessment.
8. “We really must understand that the lust for affluence in contemporary society is psychotic. It is psychotic because it has completely lost touch with reality. We crave things we neither need nor enjoy.” – Richard Foster
Minimalism is being mindful about consuming. Sometimes people buy things just to be trendy or just to keep up with the Joneses even if they don’t need, use, and enjoy the thing they bought at all. Why does someone need to buy a new HD internet TV if he already has three? Why does a family need to have 3 cars if only one person in the household knows how to drive?
9. “Too many people spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people they don’t like.” – Will Rogers
Minimalism will liberate someone who is a people-pleaser. Some people are more than willing to be submerged into debt just to be able to show off and look rich when in reality it is only a façade. Truly rich people don’t display their riches in public.
10. “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
Minimalism promotes a life of purpose. In the end, in each of our deathbeds, a life of purpose is what will ultimately matter. Man
is naturally wired to find happiness, fulfillment, and joy in having purpose and meaning.
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