Simple living quotes, sayings, etc.

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I'm not sure if there's a thread like this already, or where one would be, so if there is, you can delete this one.

If not, do you have any quotes, sayings, or little things that help remind you about frugality, simple living, and (at times) the senselessness of feeling like one NEEDS something, or wants something, even if it may not really serve a purpose?

I have a few, none of which, I don't think were actually on the exact topic of Simple Living, but that I feel are applicable. I'll just start with one, though. ;)


“Someday, someday, this crazy world will have to end,
And our God will take things back that He to us did lend.
And if, on that sad day, you want to scold our God,
Why just go ahead and scold Him. He'll just smile and nod.”
― Kurt Vonnegut, "Cat's Cradle"

In the actual book, that's one of Bokonon's calypsos, but I'm not sure if everyone has read the book, so I'll attribute it to the actual author. :) I find that helpful when I'm uncertain on if I want to buy something, or spend money on something I really don't need. Nobody lives forever, and especially not material things. While nobody lives forever, we probably will outlive a lot of the things that we think or once thought we need.

What about you all? I'll post a few more later on.

[catherine]

There are some songs with simple living themes that I LOVE, and listening to them does encourage me a lot.

Here's the lyrics for "I Got Plenty o' Nuttin'" from Porgy and Bess:


I got plenty of nothing
And nothing's plenty for me
I got no car - got no mule
I got no misery

Folks with plenty of plenty
They've got a lock on the door
Afraid somebody's gonna rob 'em
While there out (a) making more - what for

I got no lock on the door - that's no way to be
They can steal the rug from the floor - that's OK with me
'Cause the things that I prize - like the stars in the skies - are all free

I got plenty of nothing
And nothing's plenty for me
I got my gal - got my song
(I) Got heaven the whole day long

- Got my gal - got my love - got my song

[JaneV2.0]

"S/he who laughs last, laughs best."

[Gardenarian]

I admire the Transcendentalists - I love many of the saying by Emerson Thoreau, ALcott, etc. I like this one:

"To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Their motto was "Plain living and high thinking." I aspire to that.

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There are some songs with simple living themes that I LOVE, and listening to them does encourage me a lot.

Here's the lyrics for "I Got Plenty o' Nuttin'" from Porgy and Bess:

I like that a lot.

Here's an excerpt from the Zhuangzi:

"Sift through your mind and find the spirit there.

"Allow nothing to cause you to lose sight of your developing spirit.

"All living things will continue on their way, each returning eventually to their roots. Each will return to their roots but won't know why. Being muddled, muddy, confused and deluded is the way people spend their entire lives. If they can ever become aware of that only then can they progress out of that hole. By not looking to categorize themselves, nor trying to figure out why things happen the way they do, everyone would fall into their own natural way of living."


Zhuangzi Chapter 11 ~ Involvement, Acceptance or Control

[catherine]

I like that a lot.

Here's an excerpt from the Zhuangzi:

That's also a really good quote!

If you really like quotes like this, you would LOVE the book Less is More, an anthology of quotes by Goldian Vandenbroeck. It's broken into chapters, like "Voluntary Poverty," "The Ascetic Aesthetic," "Choosing the Image: Life/Style" and the quotes are from everyone from Marcus Aurelius to Mies van der Rohe to St. Augustine to Bertrand Russell.

It might be out of print, but I got mine used on Amazon.

[IshbelRobertson]

Whilst not a frugal saying, My life motto is the following: Life is too short to stuff a mushroom.

[Mrs-M]

"Slow and steady wins the race". (Love this one for it's simplicity).

[Simpler at Fifty]

My all time favorite is 'Contentment is not the fulfillment of what you want but the realization of how much you already have'.

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That's also a really good quote!

If you really like quotes like this, you would LOVE the book Less is More, an anthology of quotes by Goldian Vandenbroeck. It's broken into chapters, like "Voluntary Poverty," "The Ascetic Aesthetic," "Choosing the Image: Life/Style" and the quotes are from everyone from Marcus Aurelius to Mies van der Rohe to St. Augustine to Bertrand Russell.

It might be out of print, but I got mine used on Amazon.

Heh, how wry! :~) As some of the others I have are from Marcus Aurelius, St. Augustine, and Bertrand Russell. Though I've not read any of Mies van der Rohe's quotes semi-related to this topic. I'll look into it! :)

[Tussiemussies]

This is a great thread. The only saying I ever think of is -- a penny saved is a penny earned...:)

[Mrs-M]

Synapse to synapse. Just noticed that I overlooked extending a warm welcome your way. So happy to have you! Hoping you settle in and get to know all of us. :)

[pony mom]

My all time favorite is 'Contentment is not the fulfillment of what you want but the realization of how much you already have'.

That's very similar to my favorite one: Happiness is not about having what you want, but wanting what you have.

[Dhiana]

"Life's a journey, travel light." - unknown

[Jilly]

There is no one right way to live. Daniel Quinn - Ishmael

The only things you need to start an asylum are an empty room and the right sort of people. I cannot attribute it, but the film My Man Godfrey comes to mind.

[Selah]

Less lofty and beautifully phrased, but one that frequently comes to my mind is Dave Ramsey's "don't pay the Stupid Tax!" As in, a tax on our own stupidity that comes in the form of buying stuff we don't need, to impress people we don't know, with money we don't have, at unfair prices.

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Synapse to synapse. Just noticed that I overlooked extending a warm welcome your way. So happy to have you! Hoping you settle in and get to know all of us. :)

Thank you! Your welcome and all other welcomes mean a lot :) cow-hi:cool:

Here is another quote:


"Time is a sort of river of passing events, and strong is its current; no sooner is a thing brought to sight than it is swept by and another takes its place, and this too will be swept away."
-- Marcus Aurelius

I mentioned Aurelius earlier, as did catherine.

[leslieann]

Life is short; eat dessert first.

I take it to mean that what we have we are meant to enjoy and that's our job....so enjoy it!

[Weston]

My favorite was a Joe Dominguez quote but for some reason it escapes me at this moment. However I just watched Fight Club again last week so in the interim I'll leave you with these...


"You're not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You're not your f@@king khakis."

“The things you own end up owning you.”

“Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy sh_t we don’t need.”

“We’re consumers. We are bi-products of a lifestyle obsession. Murder, crime, poverty, these things don’t concern me. What concerns me are celebrity magazines, television with 500 channels, some guy’s name on my underwear.”

I love that movie (imperfect as it is). It's a shame that so many people think that it's only about insanity and violence.

[Weston]

Just remembered the Dominguez quote, but I'm paraphrasing...

"Those that can't figure out what enough is, condemn themselves to eternal poverty"

[try2bfrugal]

My favorite was a Joe Dominguez quote but for some reason it escapes me at this moment. However I just watched Fight Club again last week so in the interim I'll leave you with these...


"You're not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You're not your f@@king khakis."

“The things you own end up owning you.”

“Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy sh_t we don’t need.”

“We’re consumers. We are bi-products of a lifestyle obsession. Murder, crime, poverty, these things don’t concern me. What concerns me are celebrity magazines, television with 500 channels, some guy’s name on my underwear.”

I love that movie (imperfect as it is). It's a shame that so many people think that it's only about insanity and violence.

I didn't see the movie but those are great quotes. The advertising one pretty sums up what we figured out the last year or so. We are in the process of decluttering and looking forward to downsizing. We work a lot less these days, have less stuff and more free time. The eating out often and the extra stuff wasn't making us happy, but having more free time sure is.

[oldhat]

Nobody's quoted Thoreau quote yet, so I will:

"Our life is frittered away by detail. An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers, or in extreme cases he may add his ten toes, and lump the rest. Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb-nail."

[larknm]

Dhiana, I really like your "Life's a journey, travel light."

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Nobody's quoted Thoreau quote yet, so I will:

"Our life is frittered away by detail. An honest man has hardly need to count more than his ten fingers, or in extreme cases he may add his ten toes, and lump the rest. Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb-nail."

:+1::+1::+1:


"The luxuriously rich are not simply kept comfortably warm, but unnaturally hot; as I implied before, they are cooked, of course, a la mode. Most of the luxuries, and many of the so-called comforts of life, are not only indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind. With respect to luxuries and comforts, the wisest have ever lived a more simple and meagre life than the poor. The ancient philosophers, Chinese, Hindoo, Persian, and Greek, were a class than which none has been poorer in outward riches, none so rich inward."

"I also have in mind that seemingly wealthy, but most terribly impoverished class of all, who have accumulated dross, but know not how to use it, or get rid of it, and thus have forged their own golden or silver fetters."

--Henry David Thoreau, "Walden"