Subject #27: On simplicity

Simplicity – what do you think you really need? Happiness is not about fulfilling one’s desires. It’s not about getting something. It’s about enjoying life as it is, seeing that nothing is really needed. The more things you want, the less happy you will be. Desires only bring temporary pleasure, which people mix with happiness. Simplicity is the result of seeing that happiness is without a cause. It is remarkable how people can run around while doing numerous complex things but sitting quietly doing nothing seems impossible for them.

Here are some nice quotes about simplicity:

The aspects of things that are most important to us are hidden because of their simplicity and familiarity.
~Ludwig Wittgenstein

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.
~E. F. Schumacker

It is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all.
~Laura Ingalls Wilder

Our life is frittered away by detail... Simplify, simplify, simplify! ... Simplicity of life and elevation of purpose.
~Henry David Thoreau

Simplicity, simplicity, simplicity! I say let your affairs be as one, two, three and to a hundred or a thousand… We are happy in proportion to the things we can do without.
~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.
~Henry David Thoreau