23 Super Simple Quotes About Simplicity

Here is a small compilation of simplicity quotes that I found inspiring and interesting. It is so great that such brilliant minds existed. They take human thought, emotion, and expression and put it perfectly into words. That is not an easy task.

I encourage you to add your own simplicity quotes in the comments section. I know there are plenty of good ones I missed. Enjoy!

1. Thomas Kempis – “Purity and simplicity are the two wings with which man soars above the earth and all temporary nature.”
2. Frank Lloyd Wright – “Simplicity and repose are the qualities that measure the true value of any work of art.”
3. Henry David Thoreau – “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.”
4. Henry David Thoreau – “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.”
5. Henry David Thoreau – “Most of the luxuries, and many of the so-called comforts of life, are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind. With respect to luxuries and comforts, the wisest have even lived a more simple and meagre life than the poor.”
6. Richard Holloway – “Simplicity, clarity, singleness: These are the attributes that give our lives power and vividness and joy as they are also the marks of great art. They seem to be the purpose of God for his whole creation.”
7. Charles Dudley Warner – “Simplicity is making the journey of this life with just baggage enough.”
8. Plato – “Beauty of style and harmony and grace and good rhythm depend on simplicity.”
9. Leonardo da Vinci – “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.”
10. Albert Einstein – “Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler.”
11. Henry Wadsworth – “In character, in manner, in style, in all things, the supreme excellence is simplicity.”
12. Hans Hofmann – “The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak.”
13. E.F. Schumacker – “Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius—and a lot of courage—to move in the opposite direction.”
14. Eleanor Roosevelt – “A little simplification would be the first step toward rational living, I think.”
15. Charles Mingus – “Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.”
16. John Burroughs – “To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter … to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird’s nest or a wildflower in spring—these are some of the rewards of the simple life.”
17. D.H. Mondfleur – “Eliminate physical clutter.  More importantly, eliminate spiritual clutter.”
18. Elise Boulding – “Frugality is one of the most beautiful and joyful words in the English language, and yet one that we are culturally cut off from understanding and enjoying.  The consumption society has made us feel that happiness lies in having things, and has failed to teach us the happiness of not having things.”
19. William Morris – “Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.”
20. Annie Dillard – “If you cultivate a healthy poverty and simplicity, so that finding a penny will literally make your day, then, since the world is in fact planted in pennies, you have with your poverty bought a lifetime of days.”
21. Ralph Waldo Emerson – “Nothing is more simple than greatness; indeed, to be simple is to be great.”
22. Alexander Pope – “There is a certain majesty in simplicity which is far above all the quaintness of wit.”
23. Richard Bach – “The simplest things are often the truest.”

Photo by Not Persephone

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