Slow Down and Enjoy Life With These Simple Living Quotes
This fast paced world we live in is turning us all into stressed out , speed freaks. These Simple Living Quotes will inspire you to slow down and live a more intentional life.
Simple Living Quotes
Too many people are stressed out these days because we fill our lives to the brim with things we need to get done. Some how we started to equate being busy with being important. We pack our lives with meetings, errands, activities but for what purpose?
One of my favorite quotes is, “I survived another meeting that could have been an email.” While I like the personal interaction of meeting a person face to face, I hate a meeting that last an hour but basically has no purpose.
We spend too much time on things that just aren’t important and the things we should focus on; like family, relationships, health, are pushed aside. Once I started working from home I noticed that I spent more time trying to get one more thing done for work and it started to eat into the time I spent with my family.
Taking a minute to pause and reflect on what I really wanted for myself and my family, I realized we weren’t spending much quality time together. And, when we did spend time together it wasn’t actually all that meaningful.
A change needed to happen. We needed to slow down. No more cramming things into our lives that didn’t accomplish the goals we had for ourselves. If you’re like I was then these simple living quotes might just give you the inspiration you need to make a change in your life.
Don’t fool yourself into thinking a busy life is the best life. Most of the time when we’re busy we don’t have time to really appreciate what we have because we’re going too fast to even notice. As Ferris Buller said, “Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”
Here are are some more of my favorite simple living quotes that will hopefully provide you with the inspiration you need to break some bad habits and live a more intentional life
Simplicity Quotes
These quotes about simplicity are a perfect little reminder that things don’t need to be complicated to be important.
1. There is beauty in simplicity.
2. “Don’t make the process harder than it is.” –Jack Welch
3. “Simplicity is an exact medium between too little and too much.” –Joshua Reynlolds
4. “The core of beauty is simplicity” –Paulo Coelho
5. “The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.” –Hans Hofmann
6. “Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” —Robert Brault
7. “Let us learn to live simply, so that others may simply live.” —Mahatma Gandhi
8. “Simplicity is the keynote of all true elegance.” –Coco Chanel
9. “Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.” –Confucius
10. “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” –Leonardo da Vinci
11. “As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness.” —Henry David Thoreau
12. “In character, in manner, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity.” –Henry Wadsworth
13. “As I grew older, I realized that it was much better to insist on the genuine forms of nature, for simplicity is the greatest adornment of art.” —Albrecht Durer
14. “Simplicity is prerequisite for reliability.” —Edsger Dijkstra
15. “By small and simple things, are great things brought to pass.” –Alma 37:6
16. “I’m beginning to learn that it is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all.” –Laura Ingalls Wilder
17. “Life is not complex. We are complex. Life is simple, and the simple thing is the right thing.” —Oscar Wilde
18. “Life is beautiful in its simplicity.” —Thomas Matthiessen
19. “Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.” –Charles Mingus
20. “Simplicity is not a simple thing.” –Charlie Chaplin
21. “Nature is pleased with simplicity. And nature is no dummy.” ―Isaac Newton
Quotes About Making Your Wants Less
One of the best things I’ve learned in these last couple of years on my decluttering journey is to make my wants less. I’ve notice when I stop thinking about the things I want and think about the things I have that I’m a happier person.
These simplicity quotes remind me that I don’t need to fill my home and life with unnecessary things. Find the things in your life that you don’t need and get rid of them. These can be actual items taking up space in your home or time sucks that keep you away from spending time with family.
Be ruthless and edit everything. Start saying, No.
22. “How many things are there which I do not want.” –Socrates
23.“Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify.” ―Henry David Thoreau
24. “Simplicity boils down to two steps: Identify the essential. Eliminate the rest.” –Leo Babauta
25. The little things in life are often the most beautiful.
26. “A little simplification would be the first step toward rational living, I think” –Eleanor Roosevelt
27. “The greatest step towards a life of simplicity is to learn to let go.” ―Steve Maraboli
28. “Simplicity is making the journey of this life with just baggage enough.” —Charles Dudley Warner
29. The less I needed, the better I felt. –Charles Bukowski
30. Less House more Home
31. “Clutter and confusion are failures of design, not attributes of information.” —Edward Tuft
32. “Manifest plainness, embrace simplicity, reduce selfishness, have few desires.” —Lao Tzu
33. Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.” –Lao Tzu
34. “It is not a daily increase, but a daily decrease. Hack away at the inessentials.” ―Bruce Lee
35. “Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in your heart.” –Winnie the Pooh
36. “Possessions, outward success, publicity, luxury – to me these have always been contemptible. I believe that a simple and unassuming manner of life is best for everyone, best for both the body and the mind.” ―Albert Einstein
37. “Some of the greatest poetry is revealing to the reader the beauty in something that was so simple you had taken it for granted.” –Neil Degrasse Tyson
Slow Living Quotes
This last section of quotes are good reminders that we need to slow down more. Stop and smell those roses. Leave those over-packed days behind and enjoy some slow living. Cook a meal with your family and the sit down at the table and enjoy it together.
Get out in nature more often and take in its beauty. I guarantee that if you can slow your roll you’ll have less stress and more calm in your life. Think about that impact that will have not just on you but on those around you.
38. “For fast-acting relief, try slowing down.” —Lily Tomlin
39. “The central tenet of the slow philosophy is taking the time to do things properly, and thereby enjoy them more.” —Carl Honoré
40. “Wisely and slow. They stumble that run fast.” –Shakespeare
41. “When we are calm, unhurried, and free from stress and distractions the brain slips into a richer, more nuanced mode of thought. Some call this Slow Thinking, and the best minds have always understood its power.” —Carl Honoré
This last quote is by Carl Honoré, a former journalist who is a huge supporter of the slowness movement. I first learned about him through his TED talk, In Praise of Slowness. It’s a fantastic 20 minute video that talks about our need for speed and why it’s such a problem. I encourage you to give it a watch/listen because he makes some excellent points.
Honoré has also written a couple of books that you can check out if you want to learn more about his slow philosophy. You can get In Praise of Slowness: Challenging the Cult of Speed, The Slow Fix: Solve Problems, Work Smarter, and Live Better In a World Addicted to Speed are both fantastic reads.
If you want to make some concrete steps to improving your life by slowing down then I would grab 30 Days To Slow: Build a Calmer, Richer Life. This is a workbook that walks you through 30 days of step-by-step guidance on how to live a slower life.
Quotes That Encourage You To Live a Simple Life
Simple living isn’t just about decluttering your home. Getting rid of clutter is part of it and will help but you need to look at all aspects of your life.
To live a more intentional life you need to reassess your life, cut out what is not necessary, and then focus on what matters most. If you can do that, even if it’s in small ways, I promise you’ll start to see a change in yourself and your family.
I hope that at least one of these simple living quotes sparked a little something in you. I’d love to hear about some of the ways you try to live with more intent in the comments below.
Great collection of quotes. I enjoyed reading your quotes. Fav one “Wisely and slow. They stumble that run fast.”, well said. I find slowing down is more of a mindset than a physical call to action. When you allow yourself time to pause without thinking of the next thing to do, the result is always higher quality. Sometimes I write about the quotes too. Here is an example post I wrote in case you or any of your readers find it interesting. Our content complements each other nicely, perhaps we can collab in some way in the future. Cheers!